Despite a 14-year Formula 1 career, a record 95 wins and seven world championships to his name already, Lewis Hamilton has a chance to do something he has never done before in the 2021 season opener.
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, who did not have a contract to compete with Mercedes in the record-breaking 23-race 2021 season until recently, is set to contend for his fifth consecutive and eighth overall title in the upcoming season.
The season is scheduled to get underway today at Bahrain International Circuit with the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The originally scheduled season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit was postponed by eight months from Sunday, March 21 to Sunday, November 21 as a result of coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions in Melbourne, Australia.
In this year’s season opener, Hamilton is slated to have a chance to do something he’s never done before throughout his 14-year career.
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And with two wins in the last two races at the 15-turn, 3.363-mile (5.412-kilometer) road course in Sakhir, Bahrain, he has a good shot to pull it off.
Last season, Hamilton won the season’s antepenultimate race at Bahrain International Circuit. The race had been slated to be the second race of the season on Sunday, March 22, but pandemic-related restrictions led to it being pushed back by more than eight months to Sunday, November 29.
Hamilton dominated the race, only to test positive for COVID-19 just days later, causing him to miss the following weekend’s race, the Sakhir Grand Prix, at the same circuit but on a different 11-turn, 2.202-mile (3.544-kilometer) layout.
He returned for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit but did not have his best race, qualifying and finishing in third place to close out the year.
If Hamilton opens up the 2021 season with a victory, which is something he inexplicably hasn’t been able to do since 2015 and has only been able to pull off twice in his career, his last two wins will have come at the same circuit.
Of his 95 career wins, he has never secured two in a row at the same venue.
Of course, with all things considered, this stands to reason. He has won so often throughout his career, including double-digit wins in six of the last seven seasons and at least nine wins in each of the last seven, that it would take a massive schedule shift to give him a shot to achieve this.
Now after 95 wins, he has a shot to achieve this in Bahrain thanks to unexpected schedule changes in both 2020 and 2021.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Bahrain International Circuit beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET later this morning.