F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Willing To Sacrifice Record For Mercedes Team At Abu Dhabi GP
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix starts on Friday and is the final race of the 2022 season. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton has one last chance of maintaining his record of winning at least one race every season that he has competed in, which goes back to 2007.
Hamilton is currently tied with Michael Schumacher's record of 15 consecutive seasons with a win. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate, George Russell, took his first career win at the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend as well as the first win for the team this season.
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has explained that the team has no plan to prioritise Hamilton to help him keep this record going. Wolff said:
“I think Lewis doesn’t need any prioritisation, and it’s not what he ever would want. I think that he mentioned before that this record of winning a race in every single season, that is less of a priority for him.
“It’s more that we’re getting the car back to where it can be, and we’re racing for more race victories next year, and hopefully a championship.”
Hamilton has said that keeping that record going has "zero importance" to him and his main focus is on the team as a whole and looking ahead to get the car better for the 2023 season. Hamilton explained:
“I'm not focused on the record but of course, I'm trying to get that win this year. But the record is not important to me, just because I don't really care about records in general.”
The Mercedes driver also spoke about the teams first 1-2 finish following the Brazilian Grand Prix. He reflected on the difficult year that the team has had with the W13 car. He said:
“It was difficult, because we kept trying and trying and trying, and every time something new came, we still had the problems we had.
“So this is really, really huge. We know where our North Star is, we know where we need to put all our efforts in to this winter.
“I'm so proud of the team for all the incredible hard work. We wouldn't be able to be up here today without them.”
Many are now making comparisons between Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who has not shown much in the way of being a good team player especially after the Brazilian Grand Prix fiasco when he did not let his teammate Sergio Perez past after being instructed by the team to do so.