As recently as last year, Lewis Hamilton – who turns 38 in January – was adamant that he would not race into his forties. Perhaps it was the intensity of the battle with Max Verstappen that made him think it would not be possible to continue. Few, if any, could sustain that sort of pressure for a long period of time and emerge still intact.
But Hamilton’s job has changed this year. No longer in the title fight, he has become the driver in charge of leading Mercedes back to the front of the pack after an underwhelming year by their standards, when they got it wrong with the design of their new W13 car.
He started the year playing guinea pig as the team
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