Top 5 iconic Lewis Hamilton moments that define his legacy at Mercedes
When Lewis Hamilton decided that it was time to leave McLaren and join Mercedes, he was already a world champion. He'd won the title in 2008 and was already considered one of the best drivers in F1.
With that being said, in the pecking order of highly rated drivers on the F1 grid, Lewis Hamilton had struggled to keep up with both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Whether it was the relative success that the drivers were achieving or the general perception of what they were doing in their respective careers, the Brit was some way behind the other two.
It was during this time that Lewis Hamilton decided that it was the perfect time to make the switch. A switch that helped him get his hands on a title-contending car. It changed a lot of things for the driver, and the partnership of driver and team has been fruitful for both. There are a few moments that stand out over the rest when it comes to defining the legacy of their time together. Let's take a look at a few of them.
#1 Lewis Hamilton's first win (Hungarian GP 2013)
When Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes, there were plenty of question marks about what, if anything, he could achieve with the team. The team did not have the best success rate in the sport at the time.
Yet, when he moved to Mercedes and the car was a bigger upgrade than he would have expected, the decision felt right.
In what was the icing on the cake, Lewis Hamilton dominating the F1 Hungarian GP race weekend and winning for the first time with Mercedes was what sealed the correctness of the decision for him.
#2 Winning the 2014 F1 Italian GP
The 2014 F1 season was a moment of change in many ways for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes because he soon realized that the team had a car capable of dominating the entire grid. It also meant the driver turned his attention to teammate Nico Rosberg for the title fight.
The battle intensified with the two exchanging blows every weekend, but the lowest point of the season for Lewis Hamilton was the clash in Belgium. While trying to overtake Hamilton, Rosberg clipped the rear wheel of his teammate, which led to a puncture and a damaged floor. The race not only hurt Hamilton in terms of points but also mentally, as the driver told the team to retire the car mid-race.
This was precisely what made the comeback in Monza even better. The driver was on the back foot after a poor start in the race, and lost a few places. What followed was a methodical drive that saw Lewis make his way through the field, jumping Rosberg in the process, and win. This was the moment that turned the tide in the championship and made Hamilton the frontrunner.
#3 Giving up a podium to teammate Valtteri Bottas (Hungarian GP 2017)
Unlike what has been a general norm in F1, where the top teams tend to have a frontrunner and a supporting act as the second driver, Lewis Hamilton had Valtteri Bottas as his teammate, who was given equal opportunity. He had the same opportunity to fight for the title that Hamilton had, and that's the principle that Mercedes more or less operated on.
In the 2017 F1 Hungarian GP, the Brit requested the team to swap positions with his teammate as he felt he had a better chance of challenging the Ferrari duo ahead. He said he would give back the position if he was unable to accomplish this.
However, once past Bottas, he was unable to pass the Ferraris. With Hamilton in the battle for the title against Sebastian Vettel, it would have been understandable if he had not given the position back to Bottas and kept the valuable points instead. Yet, he was true to his words and gave back the position to his teammate on the last lap of the race.
In terms of sportsmanship, this ranks near the top of the list.
#4 Beating Ferrari in front of the Tifosi (Italian GP 2018)
The 2018 F1 season was possibly the most intense battle with Sebastian Vettel for Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari had a brilliant power unit and its edge was evident in the previous race at Spa, where Vettel drove around the outside of Hamilton and won.
The next race was in Monza, the home of the Tifosi, and it was this race where we saw a determined Lewis Hamilton ready to take on the challenge of beating Ferrari at its home race.
In an entire weekend where it appeared that the driver was extracting every ounce from his car, we had Lewis Hamilton beating both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen by the end of it and coming out as the winner of the race.
This was the first significant blow to Vettel's chances of winning the title.
#5 Clinching the 7th world title (2020 F1 Turkish GP)
By the time we reached the 2020 F1 season, there was almost a sense of fatigue when it came to the Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes combination. The driver had been brilliant, but at the same time, since he drove a dominant car, a lot of his results were starting to be attributed to the car.
It was thus poetic that Lewis Hamilton pulled off a stunning drive in the F1 Turkish GP, where the Mercedes was quite clearly not in the working window and struggling with performance.
The driver pulled off an entire race stint on a single set of intermediates and reminded everyone of the kind of talent that he possesses.
The fact that it was this kind of performance that helped him clinch the title further helped silence the critics who had started to attribute a lot of his success to the car.