It’s another year and another Formula One championship.
Lewis Hamilton is currently first, however, there is still a chance that he could be thrown off his spot and someone else could claim victory.
For the past few years it’s been the same outcome, with Hamilton coming in first repeatedly. Since 2014, the 34-year-old has achieved top place except for in 2016, where he received second place.
Although it looks bleak, with Hamilton leading with 225 points, there is still a chance that someone else could take over.
The German GP that finished on Sunday, July 28 had Hamilton finish the race in eleventh place but, because of suspected cheating from Alfa Romeo, he has been moved up to ninth place.
This means that there’s a chance that Hamilton is slipping from his spot at the top of F1 and he could lose his ongoing streak.
Hamilton is 34, which is older than the average retirement age for drivers. The retirement age is so low due to the driver’s needing their reaction times to be cat-like and after the age of 30, which is roughly the prime age for the body’s reflexes, those skills begin to worsen and eventually the driver would become unable to compete with everyone else who is in the prime age.
Since Hamilton has passed his mental prime, it means that there’s a chance for someone else to take over and secure the victory. Looking at Hamilton’s recent victories also suggest a loss this year, since he never seems to win more than two years in a row.
The current popular vote for that person is Sebastian Vettel and team Ferrari, who is currently in fourth and fifth place on the standings. However, Red Bull racing look to be possible winners with Max Verstappen claiming third place on the standings.
If the results from the German GP continue to repeat themselves, it would allow for Red Bull and Ferrari to claim first and second and finally leave Mercedes out of the top podium position, which it has held onto since 2014.
Red Bull racing have teamed up with Honda this year and it is a popular opinion that Honda’s craftsmanship won’t be able to take the victory. Instead they think that Red Bull Honda will take some points away from Mercedes and it will be down to Ferrari for them to secure victory.
Vettel is a couple years younger than Hamilton and it is possible that being 32 is just enough to knock him off the top now that he is old enough to start slipping up.
Vettel has always been a close contender, with most of his final scores landing him in podium positions just below Hamilton. That, combined with him racing for team Ferrari, means he has a very good chance of victory since Ferrari have always been in the top three and are known as one of the big names for Formula One racing.
In the 2000s, Ferrari dominated with their drivers, winning in the years 2000 to 2004. They knew what they had to do to succeed and maybe they’ll regain their winning ideas from 10-15 years ago and begin a new dominance.
Image courtesy of Matt Herring via Flickr, with thanks.
