Four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton signed a two-year contract to remain with Mercedes through at least the 2020 Formula 1 season. What will he accomplish by that time?
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton, who has driven for the team since the start of the 2013 Formula 1 season, recently signed a two-year contract to continue driving for the team through at least the 2020 season.
Hamilton, the 33-year-old Briton whose Formula 1 career began in the 2007 season, the first of six seasons during which he drove for McLaren, has won 67 Formula 1 races and four Formula 1 championships in his career. Those totals currently sit in second place and in a third place tie, respectively, on the all-time list.
With 67 career Formula 1 victories, Hamilton trails only Michael Schumacher, who earned 91 victories, on the all-time Formula 1 wins list. With four career Formula 1 championships, Hamilton is tied with Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost, and he trails Schumacher, who earned seven championships, and Juan Manuel Fangio, who earned five, on the all-time Formula 1 titles list.
Having signed a contact to continue driving with Mercedes through at least the 2020 season, what will Hamilton be able to accomplish before he either begins driving on a new contract or before he retires?
The driver situations among all three of the top-tier Formula 1 teams appear to be set through at least the 2020 season, so there should not be any new challengers at the front of the grid aside of Pierre Gasly, who Aston Martin Red Bull Racing signed to replace Daniel Ricciardo. Even still, Red Bull Racing are not quite on Mercedes’ level, so it isn’t likely that Gasly will content for championships over the case of the next two seasons.
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Valtteri Bottas recently signed a contract to stay at Mercedes through at least the 2019 season, and his contract has an option for the 2020 season, which will likely be utilized assuming the 28-year-old Finn continues to be a good teammate to Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel is set to continue driving for Scuderia Ferrari through at least the 2020 season, as he signed a contract to do so last summer, and it is rumored that Kimi Raikkonen will sign a contract to remain with the team through the 2020 season as well. Also, Max Verstappen is set to continue driving for Red Bull Racing through the 2020 season after signing a new contract last fall.
In other words, Hamilton knows what he is up against before his next contract expires, and it is nothing that he has not been able to successfully deal with before. After all, he has won three of the last four Formula 1 championships, he is the defending Formula 1 champion, and he leads the Formula 1 driver standings by 17 points (231 to 214) over Vettel in second place through the first 13 races of the season even though it seems as though Ferrari have had more pace than Mercedes.
So what will Hamilton be able to accomplish by the time the 2020 season comes to a close?
First of all, it will be tough to stop Hamilton from getting extremely close to if not tying or even passing Schumacher’s all-time Formula 1 wins record of 91. In the four seasons leading up to the 2018 season, Hamilton won 40 races, an all-time record for a four-season span.
Hamilton’s lowest win total in a season during that span was his win total of nine in the 2017 season, and he looks poised to win at least another three or four races this season to add to his current win total of five this season and 67 in his career.
Hamilton will likely end this season with at least 70 career victories. Assuming he wins at least nine races in each of the next two seasons, that would give him at least 88 career victories, give or take a few depending on how much Ferrari and Red Bull Racing improve during that time. That would put him well within striking distance of Schumacher’s record.
Secondly, and perhaps more notably, it will be tough to stop Hamilton from tying Schumacher’s all-time Formula 1 championships record of seven, as even with the recent improvements of Ferrari, he is still the favorite to win this year’s championship, and he will likely enter the 2019 and 2020 seasons as the favorite to win the championships in those seasons as well.
How many career Formula 1 victories and championships do you believe that Lewis Hamilton will end up with by the time the 2020 Formula 1 season comes to an end? Will he tie or break Michael Schumacher’s all-time Formula 1 wins or championships records? Will he continue driving in the sport in the 2021 season and beyond, or will the 2020 season be his final season?