While he may trail in the Formula 1 driver standings, four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton is still the driver to beat for the 2018 championship.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel currently leads Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton by eight points in the Formula 1 driver standings (171 to 163). Both drivers are four-time Formula 1 champions seeking their fifth career championships, which would move them into a second place tie on the all-time Formula 1 titles list with Juan Manuel Fangio.
While Vettel currently has the advantage over Hamilton and has had this advantage following six of the first 10 races of the season, including the most recent two, Hamilton is still undoubtedly the driver to beat for the 2018 championship for a number of reasons.
First of all, Mercedes are still the team to beat. Yes, Ferrari lead Mercedes by 20 points in the Formula 1 constructor standings (287 to 267), but Mercedes have dominated the V6 turbo hybrid era by winning each of the last four constructor championship. Ferrari have not won a constructor title since the 2008 season.
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Missed opportunities in the last few races have prevented Mercedes from scoring more points and potentially having more points than Ferrari at this point in the season. When it comes down to it, they have the advantage over Ferrari at more tracks than Ferrari have the advantage over them.
Secondly, Hamilton has won three of the last four driver championships, including last year’s, while Vettel has not won any driver championships since he won four straight titles from the 2010 season to the 2013 season when he still drove for Red Bull Racing.
No Ferrari driver has won a driver championship since Kimi Raikkonen won it in the 2007 season. Meanwhile, Mercedes drivers have won the last four driver championships. In addition to the 2017 season, Hamilton won it in the 2014 and 2015 seasons while Nico Rosberg won it in the 2016 season.
Thirdly, Hamilton won last year’s driver championship after he did not lead the driver standings after any one of the season’s first 12 races. It took him until after the 13th race of the 20-race 2017 season, which was the Italian Grand Prix, for him to finally take the lead in the driver standings.
Even with the recent missed opportunities that Hamilton has experienced in the Austrian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix, the 33-year-old is already well ahead of that pace this season having led the driver standings after four of the first 10 races. Once he got into a rhythm in the second half of last season, he was almost unstoppable.
With the pace that Mercedes have shown over the last three races despite the fact that they have only been able to win one of them, there is no reason to believe that Hamilton cannot find that rhythm yet again this season and become just the third driver in Formula 1 history to win at least five championships.
Whether Hamilton does that or he doesn’t, he is still the driver to beat at this point in the season. He is the driver who everyone is aiming to stop. He is the driver with the target on his back.
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Will Lewis Hamilton win the 2018 Formula 1 driver championship, beating Sebastian Vettel to his fifth career title in doing so, or will Vettel hold him off and win his fifth career title and his first since the 2013 season? With 11 races to go in the 21-race 2018 season, both drivers are still very much in the hunt.