Hamilton took an emotional win at the British Formula 1 Grand Prix last weekend, ending a 945-day streak without a win in Formula 1. This was the 104th victory of his career, while Hamilton’s 103rd victory came 56 races earlier at the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP – becoming the ninth largest gap between victories in F1 history. The seven-time world champion was in tears as the checkered flag flew, after claiming a record ninth victory at the British GP in front of a passionate home crowd.

There was a lot of relief regarding the win and the 39-year-old even admitted that “there were days when I felt like I wasn’t good enough”, as Hamilton and his Mercedes team had a tough time. since the regulations change in 2022. So, what was different compared to when Hamilton won the penultimate round of the 2021 season in Jeddah? Here are some examples.
Ground effect vehicle Much of Hamilton’s success comes from the turbo-hybrid era, which began in 2014 – a year after he moved to Mercedes. That’s because the German car manufacturer has adapted best to change and Hamilton beat teammate Nico Rosberg to win his second world championship in 2014.

The event kicked off a dominant run for the Briton, who won five of his next six titles with 62 grand prix wins in that time, while also losing the 2016 championship to Rosberg on the final day. Hamilton was poised to win a record-breaking eighth championship in 2021, as he led the final race of the Abu Dhabi season until a controversial decision by race director Michael Masi gave the advantage to title competitor Max Verstappen, who won. And it remained Hamilton’s last championship battle since then, as the following season saw the re-emergence of ground effect cars that had not appeared in F1 for 40 years.

However, this was a regulation change that Mercedes was unable to overcome, as the team’s first ground effects car – the W13 – was difficult to control and often struggled when cornering. This is also a term that not many people knew at the time of Hamilton’s victory in Jeddah.
This gave Mercedes only one win that season – the George Russell at the Brazilian GP – as the team also adopted a sidepod-less design, in contrast to then-world champions Red Bull. The situation got worse for Mercedes the following season when for the first time in 12 years the team failed to win while Red Bull dominated winning 21 of the 22 grand prix events. There was also little initial improvement in 2024, as Hamilton began his final season at Mercedes without a single podium finish in his opening nine grand prix events, but mid-season upgrades improved Improving the car resulted in the British driver’s first victory in the ground effects era.

Changing the F1 competition schedule

The 2021 F1 season sees a new record of 22 races, with Qatar and Saudi Arabia appearing on the calendar for the first time, while the Netherlands ends a 35-year absence from the competition. Although those tracks remain in F1 today, with the 2024 schedule just two rounds longer, it still looks very different to three years ago. For example, the United States only hosted one grand prix because Miami and Las Vegas joined Austin on the schedule as part of F1’s plan to boost its popularity in the United States.

China also returned to the calendar during Hamilton’s winless period, as before 2024 the tournament had not appeared again in 2019 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The British driver racked up a record six wins at the Shanghai International Circuit, but the 2024 grand prix did not go well for him as he finished ninth despite finishing on the podium in the race. sprint racing. Hamilton also had a good record at Suzuka with five wins, however the Japanese GP was absent from the 2021 schedule due to the pandemic. It returned the following year, but Hamilton has yet to finish on the podium at Suzuka since his return.

Many other tracks were also dropped from the schedule during Hamilton’s winless period, as 2021 was the last time Portugal, Russia and Türkiye hosted a grand prix together. Portugal and Türkiye initially returned as a single event in the COVID-affected 2020 season but staged one more race the following year, while F1 stopped coming to Russia after the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022. F1 also arrived in France at the time of Hamilton’s final win at Silverstone, as the Paul Ricard circuit remains part of the schedule until their contract expires at the end of 2022. The order of the fixtures has also changed significantly, as the Saudi Arabia GP now takes place in March instead of December, Baku takes place in September instead of June, while Spa-Francorchamps no longer takes place after the summer vacation again.
Change grid F1

Hamilton’s last two wins came with another team-mate, as Valtteri Bottas partnered him at Mercedes in 2021 but he joined Alfa Romeo – now Sauber – in 2022 after being replaced by George Russell, who previously played for Williams. In fact, Williams has changed its entire lineup since then, as Nicholas Latifi is now a retired racing driver and is currently studying at London Business School at the age of 29. In fact, none of the current Williams pair were on track at the time of Hamilton’s win at Jeddah, as Alex Albon was a Red Bull reserve driver while Logan Sargeant was in F3.

Oscar Piastri and Zhou Guanyu have also made their F1 debuts since then, while veterans Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have returned to the track after some time away. Many others have also left F1 during that time, such as former Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi who is now competing in the World Endurance Championship. The all-rookie lineup that Haas had in 2021 is no more, as Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who both failed to score any points that season, are no longer competing in F1.

The number of world champions on the grid has also decreased over the past three years, with Kimi Raikkonen retiring at the end of 2021 while 2022 is Sebastian Vettel’s final season. This makes Hamilton F1’s second-oldest driver behind 42-year-old Fernando Alonso, who are both two of three world champions on the 2024 grid alongside Verstappen.
Changes in F1 team management

The main lineup of the F1 team has also had a big change in the past three years, when eight out of 10 racing teams have new bosses, leaving only Christian Horner of Red Bull and Toto Wolff of Mercedes from 2021. Aston Martin were the first team to change managers after 2021 when Mike Krack replaced Otmar Szafnauer in January 2022 before moving to Alpine a month later. Further changes did not take place until December of that year, when Frederic Vasseur left Alfa Romeo for Ferrari after Mattia Binotto left and Andrea Stella replaced Andreas Seidl at McLaren.

Alfa Romeo and Williams also changed team bosses that season, with James Vowles leaving his role as director of motorsport strategy at Mercedes to replace Jost Capito at the British team in January 2023, in as the Hinwil-based team has opted for a less conventional setup.
The company had just appointed Seidl as CEO and instead of hiring a traditional group director, the German began overseeing a management structure that included Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Xevi Pujolar, Beat Zehnder, with Bravo acting as ‘ group representative’.

Just four months after those appointments, AlphaTauri – now RB – announced that Franz Tost, who has been with the company for a long time, will be replaced by Ferrari’s Laurent Mekies at the end of 2023. Then there was More changes at Alpine as Szafnauer leaves by “mutual agreement” in July 2023 and is replaced by Bruno Famin. However, the 2023/24 season is somewhat quieter as Haas is the only team to change head coach as Guenther Steiner is replaced by Ayao Komatsu after the US team finished bottom of the 2023 rankings. So there have been a lot of changes in management during Hamilton’s winless period and the seven-time world champion will also soon have a new boss when he joins Ferrari in 2025.