Formula 1: Will Lewis Hamilton break the single-season wins record in 2019?

Despite his fast start to the 2019 Formula 1 season, Lewis Hamilton only feels that he has been average. Will he break the single-season wins record this season?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton has not finished outside of the top two in any of the first six races of the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 season, and he has earned four victories in these six races. In fact, he has earned four victories in the last five races.

But despite the fact that he has had the hottest six-race start to a season in his 13-year career in Formula 1, the 34-year-old Briton only feels as though he has only been average so far this year.

Here is what Hamilton had to say about the matter, according to Sky Sports.

"“I definitely feel that it’s been quite an average performance from myself, maybe above average, but generally quite average for the first six races. I feel like I’ve got the best I could get. I’ve arrived prepared – the best prepared I could be – but in terms of extracting the true performance from the car, I feel like I’ve struggled a little bit in these six races.“I guess that’s kind of similar to other seasons but without doubt it’s going to improve as the knowledge you gain over the season race by race, particularly with the tyres this year, where the window is even smaller,” added the world champion.“I do anticipate things will get better as it will be for all of us. I hope, at some stage, that I’m able to crack the issues that I’ve had and get back to the form that I have within me. Whether that’s the next race or ten races from now, I can’t really say but I am very, very focused on making sure I rectify any of those.”"

For a driver and a team that are known to sandbag and downplay their advantage over the rest of the field, Hamilton’s comments should be particularly alarming, as they illustrate the polar opposite; they illustrate that despite the dominance that he and the Silver Arrows have shown so far this season, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

With this room for improvement, does the five-time Formula 1 champion have what it takes to break the all-time single-season wins record?

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The Formula 1 single-season wins record is 13, which was set by Michael Schumacher in the 18-race 2004 season and tied by Sebastian Vettel in the 19-race 2013 season. Hamilton’s career-high single-season win total is 11, which he recorded in the 19-race 2014 season and then again in the 21-race 2018 season.

With four victories in the season’s first six races and 15 races remaining on this year’s schedule, that puts Hamilton on pace to win 10 more races this season, so 14 in total. With four victories in the last five races, that puts him on pace to win 12 more races this season, so 16 in total.

Last season, Hamilton won only two of the season’s first seven races, and he went on to win nine of the season’s final 14 races, including eight of the last 11, so several of his best tracks still remain on this year’s schedule. There is no reason to believe that he is incapable of tying if not breaking this record.

But regardless of whether or not Hamilton believes that he has only been average so far this season, his start to the season has been the best start of any season in his Formula 1 career, so continuing this pace of results throughout the remainder of the season, regardless of the tracks that remain on the schedule, will be a challenge.

On top of that, it is hard to believe that Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing won’t win at least a couple of races before the season ends, even if Mercedes’ dominance continues, and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas is fully capable of winning a few more races as well.

All in all, records are meant to be broken, but they are records for a reason, as they are tough to break. Hamilton has a good chance to break the single-season wins record this season, but it is going to take the best season of his already spectacular Formula 1 career for him to pull it off.

Will Lewis Hamilton break the all-time Formula 1 single-season wins record this year? How many races will he end up winning before the season concludes with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in early December?