Lewis Hamilton will do what only one other driver has ever done before when he suits up for this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix.
At the scene of his chaotic first world championship in 2008, he will start his 400th grand prix in Brazil on Sunday (Monday morning AEDT).
Only Fernando Alonso, 45 starts ahead of him, has cracked the 400-race barrier before.
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“I definitely didn’t anticipate I’d ever get to 400; I never thought about that,” he said.
“I do remember I was approaching 300 and the narrative that everyone said, that no-one had won after 300 grands prix.
“I proved that wrong, so I’ll have to do that after 400.”
Of course Hamilton already holds the record for most wins (106) as well as for most poles (105) and most podiums (209).
But the one record that would complete his career is for most championships.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the 2026 world champion after finishing on the podium at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the silly season is heating up again, with Esteban Ocon sacked before the end of the season and fresh speculation over Valtteri Bottas’s seat at Cadillac. | Listen to PIT TALK here >
Today he’s tied with Michael Schumacher on seven, having been denied a historic eighth at the highly contentious 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With Ferrari, however, he’s hoping to complete that story, perhaps as soon as 2027.
But as last week’s race in Mexico City demonstrated, his biggest obstacle to that achievement might be Ferrari itself — and Hamilton isn’t happy about it.
Kimi’s title repays Toto’s faith in star | 01:04
HAMILTON DOUBLES DOWN ON LECLERC CRITICISM IN FERRARI ROW
Tensions boiled over in Mexico after Hamilton and Charles Leclerc tangled on the first lap.
Hamilton started from pole with Leclerc behind him in third. By the first chicane they were running one-two.
Leclerc, though, was determined to get through, but a botched around-the-outside pass at turn 4 sent him over the track, where he cut the corner and rejoined with the lead.
Hamilton, in a botched bid to defend, also ended up off the track. He didn’t cut the corner, however, and the lost momentum allowed Max Verstappen to sneak through.
With Leclerc inevitably penalised for gaining a place off the track, Verstappen had the net lead and won the race.
Hamilton manoeuvred himself into second at the red flag restart, but a Leclerc lock-up — apparently born of desperation to stay ahead of his teammate — scuppered his race and dropped him to fourth.
What would have been an emphatic one-two finish became a muted two-four result.
Hamilton was “really pissed” afterwards and openly took aim at Leclerc.
“I think it’s a mentality thing,” he said. “It’s like do or die — ‘Either I win or none of us do’ — and it shouldn’t be that.”
Leclerc backed himself to make the move in the immediate aftermath, while team boss Frédéric Vasseur called on his drivers to show respect to the broader team by not compromising the collective result.
Talks are laid down for Friday in Brazil — Leclerc flew straight home after Mexico for the birth of his first child and delayed his arrival in São Paulo until after media day — but Hamilton has again staked out his claim for the moral high ground.
Asked whether he felt Leclerc raced him harder than he raced other drivers, the Englishman was unequivocal.
“Yes,” he said, per The Race. “In Singapore (Leclerc) was fully alongside (Verstappen), wheel to wheel, fully on the inside (at the first turn) and he backed off. It was definitely different.
“If you look at the (previous Ferrari) teammates, it was the same with Sebastian (Vettel), it was the same with Carlos (Sainz).
“I’ve always tried to be respectful.
“Naturally, it’s not so easy having someone like me come into a team because I’m very outspoken and I push and push and push for so many changes — and I’m going to be pushing for more.
“As long as I’m here, that’s how it’s going to be. I’m here to win. To be able to win, you have to work with everyone around you.”
The last point seems to be what has chafed Hamilton most. While he obviously takes exception to the way Leclerc races him — and he and the Monegasque have had several flashpoints through the year — Hamilton’s two seasons with Ferrari so far have been defined by him agitating for changes he believes will put the team in a title-winning position.
The subtext is that if Ferrari had had a championship-contending car this season, it may well have lost its chance because the drivers weren’t working well enough together — or that the team wasn’t governing its drivers efficiently.
Hamilton therefore sees this as a possible turning point for 2027.
“What we build now will put us in the right position for next year,” he said.
“In some ways I’m glad we’ve had that experience. Of course I’d rather have won and had a one-two, but from that, you can learn.”
This is an uncomfortable position for Ferrari. Both its drivers feel entitled to be the team’s lead driver, and both are performing strongly.
But it’s the pain it has to deal with if it wants to gain next year.
Antonelli makes history in Mexico | 02:52
THE 2027 SEASON STARTS NOW FOR RUSSELL
George Russell resurfaced from his title defeat for the first time in São Paulo, having skipped out of Mexico without speaking to the media at the end of the race.
It’s perhaps the one time you should allow yourself to feel sympathy for these highly paid globetrotting athletes. The championship is what they spend their whole lives striving for. Being destroyed by your 20-year-old teammate at the first opportunity must be some kind of psychic damage.
But Russell said in Brazil that he left Mexico City in a huff not because of the championship per se but because of what had happened in the race, where another engine issue outside his control lost him places at the first turn, which defined his afternoon.
It puts the Englishman in a difficult psychological position. On the one hand, he must recognise that he hasn’t been at Antonelli’s level this year, something he’s said openly for many months now.
On the other hand, he wants his car’s apparently chronic unreliability to shoulder much of the blame for losing the title.
“These issues constantly keep popping up, but unfortunately this always seems like it’s on my side of the garage,” he said, per the BBC.
“We concluded we’ve only had six races from the 20 where we’ve had a clean weekend — so to think 14 of those weekends have had issues is unbelievable.
“We need to look to understand why that is, if there’s something we are overlooking or if it’s just pure misfortune. At the moment it does seem like it’s more misfortune than anything.
“In a normal season you might have two weekends or three weekends where there are issues. We’ve had three quarters of this season and that has been incredibly unfortunate.”
It’s beyond doubt that Russell has suffered more from Mercedes’s unreliability issues while Antonelli has skated through without only a few big points losses. Remarkably the team revealed that Antonelli’s car was only a few laps away from failure due to an oil leak.
But while bad luck has prevented Russell from building momentum, the lost points do not amount to a lose championship.
“It wasn’t meant to be this season, but you also need to look at yourself in the mirror and think, ‘What could I have done better?’,” he said.
“Is all of the misfortune truly misfortune? Or is it actually things in our control that could have been better?
“So you need to just have a deep, deep look in the mirror and pick yourself up again and go from there.”
The regulations are unchanged next season and will remain broadly the same until 2030 at the earliest, but Russell obviously can’t afford to let half a decade through to the keeper. Another crushing defeat in 2027 would materially alter his career trajectory.
He was four rounds of free hits between now and the finale in Abu Dhabi to understand his problems. His 2027 starts now.
Hamilton blasts Ferrari over crash! | 00:40
LAWSON SCRAMBLING FOR CONTRACT CONFIRMATION
It’s hard not to notice that Liam Lawson has looked a bit miserable in recent weeks.
You wouldn’t know it looking at his results. The New Zealander has had an outstanding year and has only got better with each round. Though rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad has had a very good debut season, Lawson has not only been perpetually ahead, he’s also slightly widened the gap between them when you’d expect the opposite to have happened.
The Kiwi has been the best performer among the midfield drivers by far this season. He’s a comfortable ninth in the championship with almost double the points of Pierre Gasly in 10th, and he has more than twice Lindblad’s score.
Off the back of his results, Racing Bulls will almost certainly finish fifth in the championship, it’s best-ever result before and since its Red Bull ownership.
So why is he looking so down?
Despite all of this, he still hasn’t been offered a new contract — and despite having appeared like a formality perhaps a month or so ago, the longer the wait, the more likely his axing would appear to become.
“I don’t know what else they want me to do,” he said, per the F1 website. “It’s just one of those things at the moment.”
“Every weekend I’ve been trying to obviously do my best.”
His worry is twofold. Not only might he lose his seat at a team he’s clearly working very well with, but there are almost no alternatives left, leaving him with the choice of accepting a reserve role and hoping for a 2028 seat or moving to a different category.
“It’s tough, isn’t it? It’s the end of the season,” he said.
“When something like this is pushed all the way to the end, you’re left with not really any options, so it’s not the easiest situation.
“Obviously I want to be racing in F1, and I’m trying to show my best every weekend. I feel like we’ve had a good year.”
Red Bull has always argued that it can deal with its drivers how it likes given it’s eased their way to F1 in the first place. To some extent that’s true.
But with Lawson having performed so strongly all season and given much back to the program, delaying the decision for so long is not just unfair but also cruel.
Lawson has every reason to perform strongly this weekend. Whether it makes a difference, though, is unclear.
Bottas crashes hard in Mexico | 00:34
ROOKIE CÂMARA SET FOR HIGH-PRESSURE DEBUT
Drivers never forget their debut weekends, but Haas rookie Rafael Câmara will have particular reason for it to be seared into his memory.
The 21-year-old Brazilian’s first race will be at home.
Esteban Ocon’s shock mid-weekend sacking in Mexico City opened the door to Câmara, who was already signed to Haas for 2027, to get a head start on his debut campaign.
There had been some talk that the team would opt for Jack Doohan instead given the pressure that would come with racing for the first time in Brazil so unexpectedly, but Haas has backed the on-loan Ferrari young gun to shine.
Speaking in the pre-event press conference, you wouldn’t think he was feeling any pressure.
“It’s very nice to be here, and I’m just really trying to enjoy the moment,” he said.
“There will be a lot of things going on this weekend, but I think I’m just really looking forward to driving and getting in the car and just enjoying it.
“I would never expect to do a first race here in Brazil in Formula 1 … so I’m just really excited to start this weekend and to see how it’ll be.”
To some extent the pressure is off. His 2026 races are a sort of free shot at preparing for 2027. Understanding the challenges of Formula 1, gelling with the team and getting to grips with the car will be the primary objectives.
But the grace period won’t last long.
His teammate, Oliver Bearman, will be keen to offer him as little a window as possible to perform.
While there’s no personal animosity between them, they’re both contending to become next in line to the next seat available at Ferrari.
That was presumed to be Bearman given his seniority and strong results. Câmara, though, is also very highly rated and has the potential to swap that order.
While a few races in 2027 won’t be enough to totally change perceptions, there’s far more on the line for whoever can generate good momentum for next season than a few extra points for Haas in the midfield battle.