The usual string of activities upon the completion of a season usually includes something like this:
- Fans and experts reminisce the best bits of the season.
- The social media begins to swell with memes that captures divergent emotions- a win post braving extreme pressure, moments of glory, funny things said whether in press conferences or post race interviews.
- The fan begins to wait and soon, impatiently so, about the start of the next season
- The prelude to the above being winter-testing and where results of past half a decade stand, then seeing Mercedes beating the pulp out of every other team.
Just that there was a bit of an addition for everyone as the 2020 Formula 1 season drew to a close. There was something majorly amiss, something that now finally seems to have been fixed.
From going for nearly a quarter of a year without having a new Mercedes deal, to finally getting a contract with the Brackley-based outfit, the king of Formula 1 Lewis Hamilton has finally sealed a new deal.
For months, the staple F1 diet of all fans and self-proclaimed experts alike had been engaging with online postulations, with suggestions going way off the mark, to suggest that maybe Lewis will just drop out of Mercedes, and the team would go for George Russell.
Alas, none of those theories now seem true as the Stevenage-born seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has signed a brand new deal with the strongest team in the sport.
That being said, there’s a catch in the Lewis Hamilton deal.
It’s confirmed that the new Lewis Hamilton Mercedes deal stands valid for just a year. So what happens now- will Hamilton leave the top annals of Grand Prix racing? Will he switch to some other form of competitive racing?
Why go the doomsday theory way, when the following has already been shared in the public domain:
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confirmed to ESPN in an interview about the details of the new Lewis Hamilton deal:
“There was never a moment where we thought he wouldn’t sign and there was never a moment where he doubted [he would sign].”
Meanwhile, the publication further elaborated-
“So why the long wait?
First of all, negotiations started way later than Mercedes or Hamilton had planned. Initially the two sides delayed talks due to the coronavirus pandemic, which condensed a 17-race schedule into six months and, due to social distancing measures, made it difficult to sit down face to face away from the circuit.
What’s more, both sides trusted the other one wanted to continue in 2021, so as the season progressed there was no urgency to put pen to paper.”
The only thing, it can be said in no uncertain terms, that may have added to the speculations, could be the fact that there was no room for any pressure on both sides since there happens to be a major trust factor between Mercedes and their star driver Lewis Hamilton.
Moreover, in January 2021, Toto Wolff himself contracted the COVID 19 and had been on the blackfoot for a bit of time.
All of these may have sparked theories like Hamilton and Mercedes not moving together for the upcoming season, which, nonetheless, now stands defunct.
A cracker of a 2020 for Lewis Hamilton
Make no mistake, but what transpired in 2020 could well take place again this season.
Out of seventeen races, Lewis stood on the podium on thirteen separate occasions, which included ten race wins.
In a season where Mercedes once again emerged as the team to beat, not an awful lot was left for the others.
Barring Pierre Gasly’s sensational win at Monza, Peres’ triumph at Sakhir, and Max Verstappen’s commanding drives at (Round#2) Silverstone-bound 70th anniversary Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 2020 was entirely Mercedes-dominated.
The big question, however is, will the brand new season align Lewis Hamilton with yet another tank of a destroyer of the other cars. Is an eighth world title in the works?
Probably most of us already have our answers!