F1 News
Hunting down the record: How Lewis Hamilton secured his sixth F1 title
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Lewis Hamilton has secured his fifth title in six years and his sixth title overall in what has been another fantastic season from the 34-year-old from front to back: we break down how he sealed his third consecutive title, which puts him closer to Michael Schumacher's elusive seven championships.
Mercedes' historic 2019 start
Five consecutive one-two's, it's never been done before in F1 history. Mercedes managed to finish with both cars manning the top two steps of the podium in Australia, Bahrain, China, Baku and Spain in that order, with Sebastian Vettel finishing second in Monaco to break the streak.
Hamilton won three and got second to Valtteri Bottas twice during that streak, and the Brit happily continued winning as the season progressed. Bottas failed to get a win all the way until the Japanese Grand Prix.
The man from Stevenage was on fire during this period. Winning four consecutive races between Spain and France, he started to pull away in the championship, eventually getting eight wins in 12 races by the time the summer break came around.
Uncharacteristic on Saturdays
The record holder for pole positions, Hamilton actually holds fewer poles than both Bottas as well as Charles Leclerc this season, 'only' getting four of them. This underlines both Hamilton's racecraft as well as Mercedes' excellent strategy-calls across the board. In Bahrain and Russia, however, they did get lucky with Ferraris in front of them malfunctioning, but their opportunistic nature always puts them in the perfect place to pounce should something go wrong with their competitors.
His qualifying in the United States, where he started from fifth place, was his joint-worst qualifying ever at the venue.
Consistency and damage limitation
Perhaps the most overlooked or underrated quality of Hamilton is his unbelievable consistency. His finish in the United States was his 31st consecutive points finish, the second-longest streak in F1 history. Second to himself; his record is 33, something which he'll likely break by the end of this season.
This bodes to just how good Hamilton is at extracting the maximum of his car, even when it was an off-weekend for Mercedes. For example, while Bottas crashed out during the wet German Grand Prix, Hamilton nursed his W10 home to ninth place (after disqualifications from both Alfas), and he is almost always on the podium when he's not winning; something which cannot be said for either Ferrari driver, who are prone to getting tangled up with other cars.
The greatest?
So, with six titles under his belt now as well as almost every record in F1, where does Hamilton currently rank in the sport's history?
Is he the greatest of all time? And if not, what will he have to do to become the 'G.O.A.T.'? Let us know in the poll and in the comments below!