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Lewis Hamilton's 2022 F1 season has not had the best of starts, to say the least. Despite not being on the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes' new upgrades ahead of the Spanish GP look promising. While this could be the key to the German team returning to its winning form, for Lewis Hamilton, however, another battle seems to be brewing.
The battle is against his teammate George Russell. After the first five races of the season, the 37-year-old driver trails his teammate by 23 points in the championship. To make matters worse, he has lost out against Russell in four consecutive races.
If this goes on for much longer, the Briton might be at risk of losing his "GOAT" status. Here are three reasons why it is imperative for Lewis Hamilton to beat his younger teammate this season.
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#1 This would be his third loss to a teammate
Lewis Hamilton has been considered the GOAT in F1 by many respected F1 pundits and his statistics speak for themselves. Even the great late Murray Walker termed him as the "greatest of all time" when he was on his way to equaling Michael Schumacher's record of seven championship triumphs.
As a driver who is considered to be the greatest to ever race in F1, should he be losing to three different teammates in his career? Sure, if we're generous, we can put his defeat to Button down to personal reasons and even the defeat against Rosberg to a lack of fortune, but what will a defeat to Russell be attributed to?
Legends of the sport do not often lose to their teammates. A third loss would go a long way in diminishing the aura of a driver who has a claim to be considered the best to ever do it.
#2 He emerged second-best against Max Verstappen last season
Almost all of Hamilton's title triumphs have come when he's either held a distinct car advantage over the other drivers or had a comparatively weaker opposition against whom he prevailed. In 2008, he scraped through against Felipe Massa, a good driver but not really the best driver on the grid. At Mercedes, the 37-year-old driver has triumphed over Rosberg and Bottas, two drivers who would not be counted amongst the best on the grid in their respective seasons either. In 2017 and 2018, some would argue that even though Hamilton was the better driver then, he did have a distinct car advantage over Vettel.
Every time in his career Hamilton has fought against credible opposition in a similarly paced car, he's seemed to have lost. He lost against Raikkonen in 2007 (when Kimi was at his peak), against Vettel and Alonso in 2010 and 2012, and most recently in 2021, when Lewis was considered to be the best driver on the grid and at his peak, he lost against Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Whenever Lewis has had competition in a similarly paced car, he has come out second best.
The biggest damage to Lewis Hamilton's GOAT claim was made in the 2021 season because by then, fans and pundits alike had started calling Lewis the greatest driver ever, and then, Verstappen was able to churn out better results than him. At some point in the future, these defeats might go against Hamilton's status as the greatest driver ever in F1.
#3 Lewis Hamilton's career loses sheen if we exclude the Mercedes partnership
Despite having already won a World Drivers' Championship during his McLaren years, Lewis Hamilton's astronomical rise to the top of F1 coincided with his decision to join Mercedes. This begs the question: How much of his achievements were the car and how much him?
In 2013, before Mercedes had reached the top of the sport, the top two best drivers on the grid were Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. The Briton fared worse than both Alonso and Vettel from 2010 to 2013 in a car that was relatively similarly paced to Alonso's Ferrari and a tad bit slower than Vettel's Red Bull. Hamilton could beat neither Vettel nor Alonso even once over the course of those seasons.
This changed in 2014 when the 37-year-old driver gained a massive car advantage over both Alonso and Vettel and started beating them regularly. It wasn't until Red Bull produced a similarly paced car with Max Verstappen in 2021 that Hamilton was finally upstaged.
It seems that Hamilton's wins against the best drivers on the grid have always come in significantly better machinery. However, when the cars were similar, he was defeated regularly.
Now, in 2022, if George Russell can get the better of Hamilton in the same car, then that would, in essence, mean that Lewis Hamilton has lost to the best drivers on the grid of two different generations in similar machinery. Somewhere down the line, a driver who cannot beat the best of his generation in similarly paced cars cannot be considered the greatest to ever do it. Hence, it is imperative for Lewis Hamilton to beat George Russell this season or risk suffering a massive dent to his legacy.
