Why Lewis Hamilton Is Conceding F1 Championship after Just Four Races

Lewis Hamilton is seventh in the standings, 58 points off the lead, and there’s only been four events. His hopes of contending for a record-breaking eighth world title are already over for 2022.

Hamilton's weekend in Imola was a microcosm of a troublesome season.

On Saturday, after finishing 14th in the Sprint qualifying race, Hamilton was stoic about the situation, citing the difficulties he faced with a recalcitrant car in 2009 with McLaren before making mid-season gains to re-emerge as a win contender. He finished fifth in the standings that year.

“The 2009 car was very, very far off, and was the worst car that I've had,” Hamilton said. “This car currently is not far off that experience, but I think has a lot of potential. As did that car, we fixed it eventually and got back in the fight, or in the game. And I have the utmost faith that my team can do that here too.”

He also moved to rubbish any speculation, prompted by some former F1 drivers turned provocative pundits, that the disappointing situation could leave him evaluating his future with Mercedes.

“We’ve had amazing times together, we’ve ridden the highs and lows together,” said Hamilton. “I am 100 percent committed to this team. There’s nowhere else that I want to be. Just because we’ve hit a rough patch, it’s just not in my DNA to back out. We are still world champions and we can fix this. It’s just going to take longer, it’s going to take a painful year. I think, ultimately, this is going to be a painful year that we’re going to have to ride out together with belief that we can rectify it at some point, maybe through the year or even the worst case scenario, at least for next year.”

Sunday was little better for the seven-time champion. Hamilton remained marooned outside of the top 10 and eventually came home in 13th place, having spent much of the race staring at the rear wing of Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri. There was also the ignominy of Hamilton being lapped by Verstappen at two-thirds distance. It was in stark contrast to George Russell’s excellent performance. Russell vaulted from 11th to sixth on the opening lap, which effectively was the lone positive of his race, and grabbed a couple more spots to classify fourth.