![]() ![]() Hamilton suffered more than his fair share of reliability problems, most spectacularly while leading in Malaysia, but Rosberg won fair and square in the crucial Japanese GP and Hamilton also gave away points with some poor getaways. Then the duo crashed on the opening lap in Spain. Nico Rosberg managed to continue the momentum he had at the end of 2015, when he’d won the last three races, to take the first four GPs. This is the one that, in part, Hamilton let slip through his fingers. 2016 - Hamilton’s last missed opportunity Unreliability hampered Hamilton's 2016 title challenge - but he also gave away points to team-mate Rosberg of his own accord (Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images) The W13s came alive running long on the medium tyres and Hamilton might have beaten Verstappen had the safety car not arrived and ruined his chance. The race that got away from Hamilton came at Zandvoort. Hamilton’s peaks were still high – sublime drives in France, Mexico and the United States demonstrated he remained one of the few drivers capable of worrying Max Verstappen – although even the man himself conceded that perhaps he might not have been quite as consistent as in previous years. ![]() PLUS: Why Hamilton is still the man to keep driving Mercedes forward Despite that, he edged the qualifying battle with Russell and tended to be the quicker Merc driver on the car’s better days, Brazil weekend aside. ![]() ![]() With more experience than Russell, Hamilton led the way on trying to sort the W13’s major problems and experimented with wild and varied set-ups, which compromised some of his weekends. Yes, he got outscored by new team-mate George Russell and had his first winless campaign in F1, but Hamilton’s 2022 wasn’t as bad as many tried to make out. 2022 - Fighting to fix the broken Silver Arrow Hamilton wanted retribution for his 2021 title near-miss, but the W13 proved to be an unlucky follow-up (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images) The W04 didn’t destroy its tyres as anticipated and Hamilton did the rest, nailing crucial passes when required to score his first win for Mercedes by 10.9 seconds. He didn’t always like the feel of the brakes during his first Mercedes year either, but victory at the Hungaroring in late July and fourth in the drivers’ standings (the same as in his final McLaren year), albeit well behind a rampant Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, wasn’t a bad start.Īgainst even his own expectations, Hamilton won from pole despite a baking track. Hamilton was not always on top of tyre management with the soft Pirellis, something that he became a master of in subsequent years, and dramatically lost the British Grand Prix thanks to a tyre blowout. Hamilton narrowly got the better of new team-mate Nico Rosberg and took five pole positions, but the W04 voraciously devoured rubber. Many questioned the wisdom of Hamilton’s move from McLaren to Mercedes, but it quickly looked good when Mercedes produced the second-fastest car of 2013 and the ‘other’ silver team fell back. 2013 - Promising start to a new era Hamilton's move to Mercedes was heavily questioned, but 2013 showed glimmers of what was to come (Photo by: Patrik Lundin/Motorsport Images) We’ve rated them on Hamilton’s performances across each year, taking into account virtuoso races and errors, plus any difficulties or challenges he had to overcome and how he compared to his team-mates.ġ0. PLUS: Assessing Hamilton's remarkable decade as a Mercedes F1 driver ![]()
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