Can Lewis break the curse of 300?
No driver has won after that landmark...
LEWIS HAMILTON joins an elite club this weekend and, as is his wont, he is determined to go one better than any of his fellow members.
Here at Circuit Paul Ricard, the home of the French Grand Prix, where it is hot enough to fry eggs on the asphalt, he becomes only the sixth man in history to start 300 Formula One races. Kimi Raikkonen (349), Fernando Alonso (345), Rubens Barrichello (322), Michael Schumacher (306) and Jenson Button (306) lead the roster.
What none of them have managed is to win a race after hitting the three-century mark. That is a tag Hamilton, who is winless since Saudi Arabia last December, does not want to wear around his neck. He would prefer to preserve his record as the only driver to have won in every season of his career.
Not even Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine phenomenon of the 1950s, could lay claim to that last accolade despite a shorter career. In passing, ‘El Maestro’ competed in just 51 grands prix when seasons comprised seven, eight or nine rounds rather than today’s 22-race monster. So, by a quirk of timing, it’s Fangio 51; Sebastien Buemi, to pick a modern name from relative obscurity, 55.
Historic diversion aside, the question is whether Hamilton can ever win again. First, he has a better chance than the rest of the ‘300 Club’, stymied as they were/ are by varyingly inadequate cars and in most cases by fatigue and decline. Their glories lay in distant pasts.
Hamilton’s successes are fresher, and he has not countenanced any notion of slipping away quietly. He has unfinished business to attend to after losing the title so agonisingly last season in a setback so visceral some around him wondered whether he would ever get over it.
So, even aged 37 and with his skills arguably beginning to wane by fractions as the sand runs through the timer of his career, he has substantial motivation. This came through at Silverstone, where, with the whiff of victory in his nostrils, he unfurled his most spirited drive of the season. It was a little short of vintage but did not lack for verve.
He also has a complex that helps. Sir Jackie Stewart saying he thought Hamilton should retire is a case in point. It was a legitimate take on events from a three-time world champion who walked out of the sport at the top of his game after 99 races, one fewer than he intended after the death of his Tyrrell team-mate Francois Cevert the day before what would have been his 100th dice with death.
Agree or not, Stewart was asked a question and gave an honest answer. That’s how life works.
Not in Lewis’s book. By implication, he casually lumped Stewart in with Nelson Piquet, who deplorably used a racist epithet, as ‘old voices’ who should be denied a platform. So much for diversity and inclusion!
But what the great champion needs more than a burning sense of injustice is a car capable of victory. Staff at Mercedes’ Brackley factory speak exhaustedly of being worked to the bone in pursuit of a fix.
Their Stakhanovite endeavours do not look to have delivered in time for France this weekend. The car was off the pace in practice despite predictions the smooth track would be kind to their famously bouncing car. Their upgrades did not sparkle brightly enough.
Ideally, Hamilton would not have sat out yesterday’s first practice session as Mercedes obliged the requirement to blood a rookie, in this case Nyck de Vries, the Formula E champion from Holland. So while iced drinks were served at the ersatz beach bar in the paddock, Hamilton was watching the early afternoon running from the garage. It was, as far as memory serves, the first time he has watched a whole session trackside in 299 visits. He completed 23 laps later in the afternoon to finish fifth, nearly a second behind the table-topping Ferraris. George Russell, in the other Mercedes, was one place ahead of Hamilton and one behind Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen. ‘We have a lot of work to do, a lot of ground to cover,’ said Hamilton. ‘We are a little bit further behind than we anticipated. The car is not spectacular and we don’t know why. But usually overnight we make a bit of a step forward and hopefully that is the case. ‘I am going to have to dig into the data, but it just feels like we are lacking downforce.’ During his press conference, Hamilton unconvincingly feigned no knowledge of his landmark tonnage. There are no parties planned. Or as much as a cake to cut. A pole and win No104 are surely the icing and candles he really craves.
Regardless of Hamilton’s own reticence, acclaim rang out along the paddock. McLaren’s 22-year-old Briton Lando Norris said: ‘I am glad I have raced in the same era as Lewis. I take it for granted when am I doing it, but in 30, 40, 50 years’ time I may realise how lucky I was.’
Nice words. But what about the hard stats? My guess is Lewis can beat his ‘300’ club-mates by registering another victory, but it would take something special or strange for it to come in southern France tomorrow.
An eighth title? Well, that’s trickier.