Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton could pull off historical feat not achieved since 2002

Lewis Hamilton is on pace to win his sixth Formula 1 championship this year. He could also do something that hasn’t been done since 2002.

We are officially back from the 2019 Formula 1 summer break. Four weeks have passed following Lewis Hamilton’s comeback drive to defeat Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix and secure his eighth victory and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s 10th victory in the 21-race season’s first 12 races, and the Belgian Grand Prix is scheduled to take place later today.

Hamilton leads the driver standings by a sizable gap of 62 points (250 to 188) over teammate Valtteri Bottas in second place, and with a maximum of 26 points on the table for each driver in each race, he might as well be handed his sixth championship with nine races remaining on the schedule.

There are several accomplishments that Hamilton has the chance to pull off this year, some of which have never been pulled off before, and many of the ones that have been pulled off haven’t been pulled off in quite some time.

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Becoming a six-time champion is one of them. Assuming he wins this year’s championship, he would become just the second six-time champion in Formula 1 history and the first since Michael Schumacher became a six-time champion in 2003 and a seven-time champion in 2004.

Additionally, with eight victories in the season’s first 12 races and nine race remaining on the schedule, he is on pace to win 14 races this year. The all-time single-season wins record is 13, which was recorded by Schumacher in 2004 and then by Sebastian Vettel en route to winning his fourth championship in 2013.

But aside of all of this, the 34-year-old Briton has the opportunity to do something that has not been achieved since 2002, and when it was achieved in 2002, it had never previously been achieved.

Only one time in Formula 1 history has a driver completed every lap in every race over the course of a season. Not shockingly, it was Schumacher who pulled it off en route to winning his fifth championship.

Unlike Schumacher, Hamilton does not have a chance to pull off this feat without finishing a race off the podium. Schumacher finished each of the 2002 season’s 17 races on the podium, and he won 11 of them. He clinched the championship with an all-time record six races remaining on the schedule. A total of 1,090 laps were contested in 2002.

So far this season, 746 laps have been contested of the 749 that were planned, as the German Grand Prix was shortened from 67 laps to 64 laps due to rain. A total of 517 laps remain on this year’s schedule, so if Hamilton is able to end the season with 1,263 laps completed, he will become just the second driver to complete every single lap in a season.

In addition to his eight victories, Hamilton has recorded two podium finishes. He also finished in fifth place in the Austrian Grand Prix, and he had to settle for ninth place in an incident-riddled German Grand Prix.

In fact, in the German Grand Prix, he urged Mercedes to retire his car. Had they done so, he wouldn’t be in this position.

There is another driver who still has a chance to pull off this feat this year as well. While he trails Hamilton by a sizable gap in the driver standings, his run could potentially closer resemble Schumacher’s since he hasn’t finished outside of the top five in over one year.

Will Lewis Hamilton complete each of the 517 laps remaining on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule to become just the second driver in the history of Formula 1 to complete every lap throughout an entire season?