"I think more about the journey" - Lewis Hamilton says 300-race milestone doesn't 'faze' him as he aims to take season-first F1 win

Lewis Hamilton, who had a rough start to the 2022 F1 season, is more focused on securing his first race win of the season than on the 300-race-start milestone he is set to achieve this weekend at the French Grand Prix. Only five drivers have experienced over 300 race starts in F1, with Fernando Alonso being the only driver on the current grid to be part of the exclusive club.

Confident that he will soon be in a position to challenge the championship leaders to take his first race win of the season in the upcoming races, in a press conference ahead of the French GP, the seven-time world champion said:

“It doesn’t faze me because I’m working towards getting that win. So I do believe at some stage we’ll be able to compete with these guys. Whether it’s this weekend, or in five races time. So yeah, I don’t really think about that. I think more about the journey. The journey is the important part. I think we started off not where we want it to be, we’ve made progress, we started to reach a patch of a bit of consistency. Not a single person in our team has given up, and we’ve continued to push.”

He added:

“So I’m really proud of the process and experience that we’ve had. It’s definitely not the…Entering into season it’s not necessarily the one you would ask for but if anything it’s been a really valuable lesson learned for all of us, and experience. I think we’ve sharpened our tools in lots of other areas. So that when we do get back to where I feel like we deserve to be then I think we will appreciate it that much more.”

Third place is the best result secured by both Mercedes drivers so far this season, with Lewis Hamilton taking two back-to-back podiums in Silverstone and Austria.

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Lewis Hamilton admits he does not know "what to expect" at the 2022 French GP

Ahead of the upcoming race at Circuit Paul Ricard, Lewis Hamilton admitted that while the team is constantly making improvements, he does not know what to expect going into the French GP. He hopes that the team's previous success on the track could be an indication of a potentially strong performance.

Sharing his expectations from the race, he said:

“Well, every weekend we are hoping to improve for sure. And I really don’t know what to expect this weekend. We have things that we’re trying to…We’re constantly making changes to the car, the aero forces and everything like that. So, the aero surfaces.”

He continued:

“So I’m hoping that we discover something this weekend that helps us creep a little bit further forward. But in general, this has been a decent race for us. So I hope it’s the same this weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton currently stands sixth in the Driver Standings with 109 points to his name.