Lewis Hamilton has one more chance to avoid his first Formula One season without a victory, and it comes on Sunday in the place where he suffered one of the biggest blows of his career just a year ago.
Hamilton¡¯s return to Abu Dhabi ¡ª where in 2021 he missed a record eighth title after a controversial late change to the safety car procedure while he was leading ¡ª comes with an opportunity to end 2022 on a high.
The prospects look a lot brighter with Mercedes ending its season-long winless streak with George Russell¡¯s breakthrough win in Brazil last weekend.
Hamilton, a five-time winner at Yas Marina, still faces a big challenge and is not expecting any special treatment from Mercedes.
¡°Lewis doesn¡¯t need any prioritization and it¡¯s not what he ever would want,¡± team boss Toto Wolff told reporters after Sunday¡¯s race at Interlagos when asked about the record and any help that might be given.
¡°I think he mentioned before that this race record of winning a race in every single season is less of a priority for him.
¡°It¡¯s more that we are getting the car back to where it can be and we are racing for more race victories next year and hopefully for championships.¡±
Hamilton only needed six races to become a winner in his debut season, in 2007, and has won at least once in every season since then.
¡°I¡¯m not focused on the record but of course, I¡¯m trying to get that win this year,¡± Hamilton said in September.
¡°The record is not important to me, just because I don¡¯t really care about records in general.¡±
The 37-year-old has finished second in his last three races and Mercedes has come a long way since the start of the season when its drivers were wrestling with a bouncing car that was not competitive.
¡°It¡¯s still work in progress but we¡¯ve had a good upgrade that we brought to Austin, we were solid in Mexico and now in Brazil which wasn¡¯t the track we expected to be super-competitive we actually out-performed everyone,¡± said Wolff.
¡°That shows that we are getting there in understanding how to unlock the performance in the car and that is a good indication for next year.
¡°We have seen the positive trend over the last three races. Are we back at the domination (level)? No, we are not. I think Abu Dhabi on paper is much more difficult for us.¡±
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