If we look back at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport had already accomplished a lot in Formula 1 at that time. He was the five-time champion, had won 73 F1 races and was only 2nd after Michael Schumacher’s 91 F1 victories overall. He already had the maximum number of pole positions’ record, having scored 83 in total, and breaking that record couple of seasons ago.
Now in the final stages of the 2019 F1 season, Hamilton has become a six time F1 champion – moving to second overall – after finishing second in the US Grand Prix earlier this month after his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The talented British driver has now scored 87 pole positions and 83 victories overall. Thoroughly backed by all the popular motor sports betting odds, Hamilton is well on his way to become a legend of the sport.
Set to become the most successful driver in F1 history
Keeping in mind that he has consistently won 9 or more races in every F1 season since 2013, Hamilton is perfectly placed to emerge as the most successful driver in the history of Formula 1, sometime next year. The Brit is also a huge favourite to win the world championship next year as well, having already won 3 back-to-back championships and 5 of the last 6. Winning another F1 title will place him on a par with Michael Schumacher for the most championships.
However, Hamilton is in with a chance to accomplish a different feat in the upcoming race weekend in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit. This record has been achieved only once in the F1 history, and as expected it was Michael Schumacher who pulled it off last. In the event that Hamilton completes all the 55 laps of the next F1 race, racing on the 5.5 km long and 21 turn Yas Marina circuit, he will become the 2nd driver after Schumacher to complete all the laps in an F1 season, and the first-ever driver since Schumacher accomplished that same feat in the 2002 championship. Although he refuses to get consumed by the quest of overtaking Schumacher in the record books, it can’t be denied that it must definitely be in the back of his mind.
Hamilton has successfully completed all 1207 laps which have been contested in the first 20 races of the season. In these races he has scored 16 podium finishes and 10 victories and a career-high average finishing position of 2.45.
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Back in 2002, when Schumacher had successfully pulled off this feat, he had completed all 1090 laps of the 17 races he took part in. He won 11 races overall and had podium finishes in 6 that he didn’t win, scoring a record average finish of 1.41, a figure that will most likely never be broken.
At present, Hamilton is on a 32 race streak of completing all the racing laps, not failing even once since the start of Australian Grand Prix in July 2018, the same race in which he had to retire early because of a fuel pressure issue.
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