After 18 races and no wins for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, the fans hardly had anything to be happy about for the ace driver and his team. But the 19th race seemed to find new energy in the Briton. It was different. He looked like he was back; he looked like himself again.

Hamilton holds the extraordinary record of at least 1 win in every F1 season that he has competed in. The ‘secret’ behind this is another record of his – the most GP wins by a driver, with Lewis having won 103 GPs over his distinguished F1 career. But for the Stevenage boy, the 104th has been hard to come by.

Austin was different. The Mercedes car had been worked on and upgraded, and Lewis found the pace he had been lacking all season long. He led for a while too as a result of a poor pitstop for Max Verstappen that cost him a considerable amount of time. But ultimately, he was overtaken by the Dutch Lion.

Hamilton came out of the race happy with his performance, to say the least. His star-studded visitors were also very happy with the drive he produced on Sunday night. British-born American fencer and two-time Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson was a spectator alongside tennis legend Serena Williams. Chamley-Watson posted a picture of the three on Instagram after the race.

Miles wrote “So so proud of my brother @lewishamilton. You’re a different breed bruv. You drove amazing. Had the best time this weekend. Austin your (sic) an amazing city, see you next year.”

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Lewis did have an amazing night in Austin. He couldn’t bag the big prize but he will be charged up and raring to go for next weekend in Mexico City. Fans will be hopeful he can finish first this time.

Lewis Hamilton doesn’t share the optimism his fans have for him

While his fans like Miles and millions of others believe he showed glimpses of his past self, and we might see a victory for him this season, he doesn’t share the same rose-tinted glasses as them.

For Lewis, while the drive was considerably better, Texas was the last chance Mercedes had to win a GP in 2022. He said “We really need to be realistic. The Red Bull car has been the fastest car by far all year and it is still the fastest car. It was great to have started third and been in position to fight but on true pace they’ve been ahead of us all weekend.”

“They were on Sunday and they will be the next three races. So, unless something drastic happens to any more of them, then it’s highly unlikely that we will have the true pace to be able to compete with them.”

He went to marvel at the pace of the Red Bull as he noted “He [Max] had an 11-second stop, and he was behind Charles, that just shows how much pace they had in hand. To have got past Charles [Leclerc] and to have caught up six seconds and pulled three seconds ahead of me at least, that shows some serious speed.”

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To witness a record like Lewis’ be broken is painful and extraordinary at the same time. It shows that even legends like him have to and will go through a downfall. Hopefully, next season will be better for the Brit.