Formula 1: How Lewis Hamilton could end a 63-year streak

Lewis Hamilton could have the opportunity to end a 63-year streak by sealing his seventh Formula 1 world championship next Sunday.

In addition to becoming the second seven-time world champion in Formula 1 history and first since Michael Schumacher won his seventh title back in 2004, Lewis Hamilton has the opportunity to end another lengthy streak by securing this year’s title.

Only one time have we even seen the trio of Formula 1, NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar champions be the same in two separate seasons — in any two seasons that is, not specifically two consecutive seasons.

This is despite the fact that the modern Formula 1 era has been dominated by one team, Mercedes, and one driver, Hamilton.

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We have not seen this feat pulled off since 1957, when Juan Manuel Fangio won the Formula 1 world title, Buck Baker won the Cup Series title and Jimmy Bryan won the IndyCar (then known as USAC National Championship Trail) title. Those three drivers also won those three championships in 1956.

As for this year, Scott Dixon has already won the 2020 IndyCar championship to become a six-time champion. He also won the title in 2018, and he won it this year after leading the standings following every single one of the 14 races on the schedule, something that hadn’t been done since 2001.

Here’s where we’ll know if Hamilton will have a chance to pull this off.

Should 2018 Cup Series champion Joey Logano seal the deal and win his second title this afternoon, it would put Hamilton in a position where him sealing the title would create this unique scenario with the same three champions for just the second time ever.

Logano simply needs to beat Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott in this afternoon’s season finale to become a two-time champion.

Hamilton leads Bottas by 85 points with four races remaining and a maximum of 104 points left on the table (26 in each race: 25 for the race win, one for the fastest lap), and he has clinched the tiebreaker over his teammate, having won nine of the first 13 races compared to Bottas’s two, meaning that Bottas can end the year with no more than six victories to his name.

Following next Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix at Intercity Istanbul Park, there will be a maximum of 78 points left on the table for each driver, meaning that Bottas must outscore Hamilton by at least eight points in this race just to take the fight to the season’s antepenultimate race.

Only twice so far this season has Bottas outscored Hamilton by at least eight points, with those two instances occurring in the two races which Bottas has won.

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Tune in to NBC at 3:00 p.m. ET this afternoon for the live broadcast of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 race from Phoenix Raceway, and tune in to ESPN at 5:10 a.m. ET next Sunday, November 15 for the live broadcast of the Turkish Grand Prix from Intercity Istanbul Park.

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