Hamilton in the 300 club, can he break the “curse”?

Lewis Hamilton is preparing to enter the prestigious circle of 1-year-old drivers in FXNUMX, alongside five legends of the discipline. The only downside is that none of his predecessors subsequently returned to the top of the podium.

Published on 21/07/2022 à 11:06

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Hamilton joins the 300 club at Le Castellet, but can he break the “curse”?

Can Lewis Hamilton, future neo-Spartan, do better than his predecessors? ©Florent Gooden / DPPI

And 300 for Hamilton! During the French Grand Prix this weekend at Le Castellet, Lewis Hamilton (37 years old) will become one of the six Spartans of the F1, along with Räikkönen (350), Alonso (345, still in progress), Barrichello (323), Schumacher (307) and Button (306). A closed circle, reserved exclusively for the elite of the discipline, but which has not often reserved great successes for its valiant representatives, none of whom emerged victorious – like the film 300 you might say.

A little podium to get your teeth into

If reaching the mythical mark of 300 career Grands Prix is a prestigious milestone, there is no doubt about it, it is no guarantee of success thereafter. This is evidenced by Hamilton's five predecessors in this field, who were unable to challenge for victory once the objective was achieved and the history books marked. It must be said that the drivers mentioned above were never able to win, considering their different teams. For Rubens Barrichello, the first to reach this milestone in 2010, it was certainly not within a team Williams in full decline that any victory could land. Nor even for Jenson Button at McLaren, or Kimi Räikkönen at Alfa Romeo.

On the other hand, for a certain Michael Schumacher, including his return to the paddock in 2010 at Mercedes was not a huge success, this inevitability could have been broken. But the seven-time world champion last stood on a podium during the 2012 European Grand Prix, for his… 295th race in F1. Not far away. The only one to whom we can at least attribute the honors of a podium is obviously Fernando Alonso, third in the very first Qatar Grand Prix in F1 history in 2021. The harvest is still meager, with such pilot pedigree on the menu.

However, looking at the 300th anniversary of each driver, all of which occurred in the previous decade, one observation is clear: celebrating such an anniversary in F1 is a guarantee of top 10 on Sunday. Jenson Button, 9th in 2016, Fernando Alonso, 8th in 2018, Kimi Räikkönen, 7th in 2019, and Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, both 6th in 2010 and 2012 respectively, will at least have had the merit of leaving with a few points in the bag, after a weekend full of emotion and history.

But Lewis Hamilton appears in a more comfortable position than his predecessors, although Alonso is part of a team with certain ambitions. The seven-time world champion has the weapons to overcome the curse, if Mercedes manages to catch up on Ferrari et Red Bull in the near future. With his three consecutive podiums, the Briton could take advantage of them to continue his good series at Le Castellet. Especially since in France, we would almost end up getting used to such festivities. Räikkönen also “celebrated” his 300th birthday at Castellet in 2019, with all the infectious joy and good humor that we know from him. So Lewis, what is your job?