Since making his debut in 2007, Lewis Hamilton has gone on to become a legend in F1 and even at the age of 39, continues to be at the top of his game. Mercedes, with whom he won six of his seven World Championships, suffered a slump in 2022 which made Hamilton’s life difficult. However, he didn’t let that defer his incredible consistency.
The Briton achieved his fifth podium of the season in Las Vegas last Sunday, meaning that in every single year of his 18-season F1 career, he has had at least five top-three finishes.
The highest number Hamilton reached in terms of podiums was 17, a number he matched five times (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021).
He won the World Championship in every single of those campaigns, except for in 2016 when former best friend turned bitter rival Nico Rosberg trumped him for the crown.
No driver, not even Michael Schumacher, has been able to match this incredible feat, although it could be attributed to the cars he drove. At the start and end of his career, the German legend was behind the wheel of cars that were, at best, midfield contenders.
Until 2021, finishing on the podium was not difficult for Hamilton owing to Mercedes’ supremacy over the grid. But when the ground-effect regulations came into effect, Hamilton’s struggles with Mercedes began. In 2022 and 2023, he failed to win a single race. Still, he had a combined total of 15 podium finishes, highlighting just how consistent he was.
This year, while he has just five podiums (with two races remaining), two of those were race wins — in Britain and Belgium. Before leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in a few weeks, the Stevenage-born driver would love to add more to the column.
