Hamilton to come back as ‘a force of nature’

Sam Cooper 15 Mar 2022 12:30 PM

Martin Brundle has predicted Lewis Hamilton to come back as a “force of nature” after losing out on a record-breaking eighth World Championship.

Hamilton looked on course for victory in the final race of the 2021 season before a late Safety Car call from former race director Michael Masi allowed Max Verstappen to overtake him.

After the race, Hamilton disappeared from social media – and comments from his boss Toto Wolff began speculation that he could be about to quit the sport.

However, he eventually returned to the track, explaining his absence as a need to “unplug”, and has spoken of his desire to win the record-breaking eighth.

Pundits have been tipping Hamilton as favourite for the crown, despite his reservations in pre-season, and that is an opinion shared by ex-driver turned Sky Sports F1 pundit Brundle.

“I can understand why he went on the missing list for a while on his social media. And I do think he’s back,” he said as reported by motorsport.com.

“He’s 37 years old, but it’s something I said on Sky many a time – from what I saw of his driving last year, he was driving as well as I’ve ever seen him.

New car, new teammate, new year, new drive. @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/A72n5VhcgO

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) February 19, 2022

“Clearly fitness isn’t an issue and the drivers thankfully don’t get the big shunts these days with the broken bits and knocks on the head so much. So he’s physically in great shape. And I think he’ll be a force of nature when he comes back.”

The nine-time podium sitter also confirmed he did not believe the Hamilton retirement rumours and said he “didn’t buy into that at all”.

“He’s in such great form. And what else are you going to do?” he said.

“Why would you walk away from the works Mercedes-Benz team?

“He obviously gets paid a bit of money, it’s what he loves doing, it’s what he’s best at. He’s a massive contender for greatest of all time. He always says ‘I don’t look at the league tables’, but I’m sure he wants to leave every single league table with a new high tide mark and I’ve always thought that.

“I think when I was asked on Sky Sports news actually, did I think Mercedes would pull out and did I think he would walk away? [I said] ‘absolutely 100 per cent no’. I didn’t buy it. I didn’t buy any of that because I’m sure they were feverishly putting the 2022 car together at the factory and Lewis was just regrouping.

“I think it’s ‘don’t get angry, get even’.”