For almost a decade, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes ruled the F1 racing circuits. But this past season, Red Bull and Max Verstappen broke the Silver Arrows’ record of eight straight constructors’ titles. The Dutchman and the Milton Keynes team again have a good chance of dominating because the rules will remain mostly unchanged for the next few years. But according to Lewis Hamilton, who has been up there for a long time, believes the top view isn’t as nice as it might seem.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull completely owned the 2022 season. Verstappen broke many records this past year, two of which were enormous. He amassed 454 points, which is the most points amassed by a driver in a season, and he also won 15 GPs breaking Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s previous record of 13. Whereas the year was challenging for their main rival Mercedes, who had numerous problems. The team’s star driver, who usually ends the year on a high, was without the win throughout the course of 22 races, arguably making it the worst year for the Briton.

On the final drivers’ standings, Hamilton finished sixth. The Brit, however, feels that a challenging 2022 gave him the opportunity to enjoy racing more. While possibly issuing a subtle warning to current champion Max Verstappen, the 7x champion told Crash.net, “I know how hard it is to get to the top and stay there.”

“In the past, we’ve had so much success that it’s left me a little empty and it’s kind of weird because it really is amazing. Now, we want to get back to the top and it’s that has given us hope during the final stretch of 2022.”

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The last time Lewis Hamilton took home a race win was in 2021 when he battled with Verstappen all the way to the finish line at Abu Dhabi to decide the championship. Although season 2022 was even worse than 2021, the Briton still sees the year’s positives.

Optimistic Lewis Hamilton finds something good about the 2022 season

The 2022 season didn’t go as Mercedes had anticipated. The squad that arrived intending to exact revenge for their heartbreaking loss at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix quickly realized that this year would not be theirs. Although the team’s rookie driver won the Brazilian Grand Prix for the squad, it turned out to be their only victory in the season. The team’s star’s account remained empty.

Hamilton cites the celebration after George Russell won the race at the Sao Paulo track as the season’s happiest moment, and despite not winning even a single race he has found something good about the year.

“After the race in Brazil, with George’s victory and my second place, I was incredibly happy with the performance of the team . We have been better for 2022 and I do not consider it a disappointing year by any means. We were fighting for fifth place and everyone was excited, it has been a beautiful experience. We have also experienced the feeling of going up, we were very close. It was something we needed.”

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The Silver Arrows may not have fared well over the last season, but now they will be working to change that. Do you believe Hamilton can regain his crown from the crafty Dutchman?