The Time when Hamilton Was Beaten.
Story co-written with Anuj Sindgi.
Many things have changed in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic but one thing that hasn’t changed is Hamilton winning the F1 drivers’ championship and Mercedes winning the constructors’ championship.
Back in 2014 the FIA had introduced a new “Formula” or new set of regulations which essentially brought back turbo-charged engines which last appeared in 1988 and since then Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team has won each and every constructors and drivers championship from 2014 to 2020 clearly dominating the turbo-hybrid era.
This shows the huge amount of time spent on car development by them and the innovation that F1 stands for and also highlights the fact that car development as a whole is not just having the best engine.
Lewis Hamilton has been at the forefront of this Mercedes dominant era, being the most dominant driver during these past 7 years, leading the team to 7 constructors and himself clinching 6 out of 7 drivers championships, losing one in 2016 to fellow teammate Nico Rosberg by just 5 points.
Shift from McLaren to Mercedes
Given the success achieved in his GP2 career, Hamilton got a seat at McLaren in 2007, since then he has never looked back. Beating his fellow teammate and reigning champion Fernando Alonso on countback, losing out on the championship in his rookie season by one point, which is arguably the best performance displayed by any driver in his rookie season and then going on to win the 2008 championship in the last lap of the last race of the season in quite a dramatic fashion.
But what followed since then is multiple seasons of unreliability from McLaren and it felt like Hamilton was swimming upstream against the sheer dominance of Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull where he won 4 consecutive championships from 2010–13.
Eventually, Hamilton made a switch to Mercedes out of frustration and wanting more, it took some convincing from the great Niki Lauda, who was an advisor to Mercedes at that point in time. His teammate — Nico Rosberg!
Rivalry with Rosberg
This is not the first time that these two have been paired together, they were teammates while still in karting in 2000 and then both went on to race for Mercedes Benz — McLaren in Formula A where Hamilton won the championship with Rosberg not far behind.
Both of them were very competitive and best of friends back in the day. Nico the son of former champion Keke Rosberg had many factors going in his favor but suddenly there comes this young brit who you know nothing about apart from the fact that he is backed by McLaren and naturally more talented and faster than Nico and there is nothing he can do about it but keep competing. Nico, up until this point in his career, was never able to beat Hamilton in an extended championship tournament.
Eventually both went their separate ways, both winning the GP2 titles and using it as a springboard to their entry in F1. As fate would have it they both crossed paths again as teammates at Mercedes.
2013–2015
Almost from the get-go it was evident that Mercedes would have a battle on their hands with two fast and ambitious drivers at the wheel. 2013 would be the only year Rosberg(2) got more Grand Prix wins than Hamilton(1).
Up until then it was assumed that these two can compete wheel to wheel while respecting each other’s space in the track, but at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix their relationship took a turn for the worse. In the closing stages of Q3, ahead of Hamilton on the track and on the timesheets, Rosberg made a mistake that brought out the yellow flags, which eventually cost Hamilton pole position.
In the 2014 season Hamilton took 11 wins and 16 podiums and also the drivers championship. While Rosberg did get the season high of 11 pole positions but only managed to get 5 wins and 15 podiums.
Coming into the 2015 US Grand Prix Hamilton was well aware that a race win here will guarantee him a third world championship. A lot of drama went down between the two on track during the race which Hamilton did end up winning the race and the title. Rosberg’s frustrations boiled over post race when he aggressively threw a cap at Hamilton.
For the 2015 season Hamilton had 10 wins, 17 podiums and 11 poles against Rosberg’s 6 wins, 15 podiums and 7 poles, Rosberg finishing second, again.
2016
At the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix Rosberg took the lead at the Barcelona circuit only for Hamilton to fight back. The Brit tried to overtake from the inside but Rosberg shut the door. Hamilton went onto the grass and spun into his teammate taking them both out of the race. Stewards ruled it as an racing incident but Hamilton did say “It can’t get any worse than this”, things had really soured so much.
Next, at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix Rosberg was on course of the victory only for Hamilton to launch a late attack on the last lap with the end result being contact for which Rosberg was blamed. Hamilton took the win, Rosberg finished fourth. Mercedes issued new rules of engagement for both drivers with a threat of punishment if they ever make contact again. They never did.
Backing up again came into play in the title-deciding season finale in Abu Dhabi where Rosberg needed a podium result to win the World title while Hamilton, who was leading the race, needed his team-mate P4 or lower to win it. Despite Hamilton’s best efforts, Rosberg held on to finish P2 thereby winning his maiden F1 World title.
Five days later he retired from the sport.
Rosberg’s Retirement
Many pundits and analysts were surprised by his win while in fact they shouldn’t be, he had always shown that he is capable of doing it provided good machinery, he also did it against Hamilton, the person who had gotten better of him for his whole youth career whilst Hamilton was in his prime!
Rosberg to his credit did achieve what he set out to, that is to win a championship. There were a lot of questions raised about his sudden retirement from the sport and eventually people did resort to their own judgements about this decision by saying that he got lucky and couldn’t take the heat or he is running from a fight and can’t defend his title. It’s not running when you’ve already won, Rosberg did once say that he wanted to leave on a high, on the peak of his career and as a fan you have to respect his decision. One can speculate all they want but Rosberg is a champion and he won the title fair and square. So, let’s take a moment to celebrate and appreciate what he did in 2016 which should neither be forgotten or diluted.
All of this began as a boyhood friendship, but over the course of their four years together at Mercedes, it blossomed into one of Formula 1’s best rivalries.
Will Hamilton be beaten again ?
After Rosberg’s retirement Hamilton went on to win four consecutive titles from 2017–2020, with Vettel being the major contender but Ferrari’s engine couldn’t really contend against Mercedes’. So far, Valtteri Bottas, the man who replaced Rosberg at Mercedes, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel have been the only drivers to challenge Hamilton.
How Ferrari, Red Bull and others will be able to develop their car in the upcoming season remains to be seen.
Until then it is unclear who will be the one to dethrone the dominant force and raw talent that Lewis Hamilton is.
