Lewis Hamilton is set to return to Formula 1 for another year in 2022, and he has now confronted the idea that he was going to walk away.
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is set to make his second attempt at becoming the first ever driver to win eight world titles after coming up less than one lap shy in 2021.
A controversial last-lap shootout at Yas Marina Circuit in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Hamilton passed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with whom he had entered the 22nd and final race of the year tied on points, for the race win and the world title.
Following his mandatory post-race interview with Sky Sports, Hamilton effectively went quiet, going nearly two months without sharing anything to his social media accounts.
He broke that silence by sharing a photo two weekends ago, captioned with the words, “I’ve been gone. Now I’m back!”.
Over the summer, the 37-year-old Briton had signed a two-year contract extension to remain with Mercedes through the 2023 season, but given how the 2021 season ended, some believed that Hamilton would walk away from the sport and not compete in 2022.
Comments by team principal Toto Wolff about Hamilton being “disillusioned” after watching what would have been a record-breaking eighth world championship slip away in the manner it did, plus Hamilton’s “we’ll see” remark during his Sky Sports interview, only further fueled this speculation.
Several reports indicated that he was likely to return, while others indicated that he planned to walk away from the sport. Other reports stated that he would not return unless Michael Masi lost his job as race director, while others said that he needed to know the full results of the ongoing Abu Dhabi investigation before he made a decision. And of course, others even linked other drivers to his seat.
In other words, nobody really knew anything for certain, and that was fairly obvious early on with the conflicting nature of some of these reports.
And now Hamilton is, in fact, back, and he has now confronted the rumor that he was going to retire, indicating that this really was all nothing more than offseason speculation.
“I never, ever said I was going to stop,” Hamilton clarified amid Mercedes’ launch of their 2022 challenger, the W13, this past week. “I love doing what I do. It was a difficult time for me, and it was a time where I really needed to take a step back.”
And that’s exactly what he did, even breaching protocol by skipping the season-ending prize-giving gala.
As has been mentioned over the last few weeks, even months, there was never truly a need for Hamilton to “confirm” a return for the 2022 season, given the fact that he signed the aforementioned contract extension with the Silver Arrows.
Many simply assumed that a formal confirmation would be made because of how much uncertainty there was after the 2021 season ended.
But Hamilton’s “I’m back” was never specifically tied to Formula 1, and the most formal confirmation we got about his plans for 2022 was Mercedes including his name on a team release about their car launch. They listed him as one of their drivers, with the other being George Russell. Russell is replacing Valtteri Bottas.
The 2022 season is scheduled to get underway in just over four weeks on Sunday, March 20 with the Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit. Bahrain International Circuit is also scheduled to host a preseason testing session from Thursday, March 10 to Saturday, March 12. The first preseason testing session is scheduled to take place from Wednesday, February 23 to Friday, February 25 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.