Martin Brundle in disbelief over Lewis Hamilton F1 reality at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix F1 2023 season finale gave Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle the ideal chance to give his verdict on Lewis Hamilton and his career-worst run without a victory
Lewis Hamilton’s lack of a Formula 1 race victory for nearly two years has left Martin Brundle “shocked”.
In December 2021, the seven-time world champion increased his record of victories to 103 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But after a miserable couple of seasons with his Mercedes team off the boil, he hasn’t added to it since.
The two cars the team has provided him haven’t been able to compete with Red Bull, the current defending champions, for the championship. Hamilton has therefore been unable to stop Max Verstappen from smashing all of his single-season records.
The British had never before gone an entire year without winning an F1 race. After he qualified just 11th for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it became clear that this would be his second winless season in a row.
Brundle, a pundit for Sky Sports F1, finds it hard to believe that he hasn’t seen Hamilton on the top step of a podium for such a long time. “It still feels like a shock that you know Lewis hasn’t won a race now for two seasons,” he stated.
“He’s still got one more chance this weekend, but I do feel that he’s been on fine form, particularly in the second half of the season.” The seven-time world champion hasn’t been able to seriously threaten Verstappen, though, with that.
The closest he got was at the US Grand Prix when he was closing on the Dutchman toward the end of the competition. He ran out of laps but was just a few seconds behind Verstappen at the end, sparking hope for Mercedes that they had finally closed the performance gap.
However, Hamilton’s car was eventually disqualified due to excessive plank wear on the underside, indicating that Mercedes had been operating the vehicle illegally low to the ground. Because of this, the car will perform better and have more downforce, so the outcome may not accurately reflect how close the Silver Arrows were.
And subsequent races have demonstrated that there is still a sizable performance difference. Verstappen overcame dismal practice results to put his RB19 on pole for the 12th time this season, setting himself up for a record-tying 19 victories this year, even in qualifying for the season finale this coming weekend.
Regarding Hamilton, the 38-year-old is merely relieved that another unmemorable season is coming to an end. “I’m definitely happy it’s nearly over,” he told reporters in Abu Dhabi. “[The car] is more inconsistent than ever before. It’s just up and down.”
