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Lewis Hamilton wanted to hang his helmet

Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton seems to still haven’t gotten over the heartbreak of last season losing to Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton controversially ended up losing his record-breaking eighth world title to Max Verstappen. By now everyone knows how things turned out in the last lap of the race. Race director Michael Masi was condemned for his decision which arguably cost the title to Hamilton.

With only a few laps to go, Nicholas Latifi crashed triggering a safety car. The race seemed to be ending under the SC. However, only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were allowed to overtake. Ultimately race came down to one lap showdown to the finish line. This made Hamilton a sitting duck for Verstappen who had just pitted for fresh softs. The Dutchman ultimately chased Hamilton and took the lead and the win. Hence Verstappen won his first maiden title at the expense of Lewis’s eighth.

Hamilton has admitted he thought of quitting the sport after the way things turned out:

“Was I ever truly not going to come back? I am not one to give up like that, really,”

he said.

“What really was breaking was to just believe that the sport would do something like that, that that would happen, given that there are so many people you rely on. You expect that the job would be done right.

“And an outcome of a World Championship which so many people have worked so hard for would come out through a wrong decision from somebody.

“That was probably the only thing. It wasn’t for my lack of love for working with my team or racing cars; it was literally that,”

Hamilton explained.

Time with ‘family’ helped Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton came in 2022 eyeing revenge however, Mercedes failed to produce a car challenging enough for the Briton. Hamilton also admitted that he spent time away from sports to heal from the crushing defeat:

“I spent time with my family and that was the best part of the healing, really,”

he said.

“I just gave all of my time to the kids, building snowmen and just being present with them.

“That enabled me to really recover, really bounce back. If I wasn’t with them, I would have been stuck in a hole.”

The 2021 cost cap saga has further added to the already controversial 2021 season. FIA and red bull have already reached an agreement for the breach.

With red bull breaching the 2021 season budget cap, Hamilton admitted that the news bought back the pain from the past:

“That, for sure, brings up a little bit of emotion, because you kind of buried it and moved on, and then it comes back up and it’s like another bit of a kick,”

he reacted on the cost cap saga.

“That just brought it all kind of fresh again, so then [it was a case of] just getting back into the phase of suppressing it and moving forwards.”

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