F1 Wins King Lewis Hamilton Is Definitely Down, but Not Out: 'I Will Win Again'

• It's been 25 races since seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has won a Formula 1 race.

• His last win came on Dec. 3, 2021 in Saudi Arabia—site of this weekend's F1 race.
  

• Just one race into the 2023 season, things feel a little too much like 2022 for Hamilton.

With seven Formula 1 championships and a record 103 Grands Prix wins already in the bank, Lewis Hamilton has been the gold standard in his sport for nearly two decades.

This weekend, Hamilton is embarking on his latest effort to break out of the longest losing streak of his career. It's been 25 races since Hamilton has won, with his last win coming on Dec. 3, 2021 in Saudi Arabia—site of this weekend's F1 race.

The 25 races without a win is the longest such streak of his career. Last year was the first season in his career, dating back to his rookie campaign with McLaren in 2007, that he failed to win a race.

Suffice to say, Hamilton is not banking on the magic returning to him at Mercedes just yet.

"Yeah, I will win again," Hamilton said on Thursday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. "It’s just going to take some time. Of course in 2021 when we were here, we were hoping to be fighting for another World Championship. You know, you never know what's up ahead."

And give the 38-year-old credit for one thing, he's still looking forward and not ready to close the book on his career.

"There will be things that happen in our in all of our lives that we least expect," he said. "But it's not how you fall, it’s how you get up. It's how you deal with it. It's how you show up. It's how you continue to remain positive and tackle the issues that you're faced with. And so that's where my energy is going into. And that's where the everybody every single person in the team is focused on."

Hamilton finished a modest fifth in the season opener at Bahrain. But, he was never really a factor and finished 50 seconds back of winner Max Verstappen. Just one race into the 2023 season, things feel a little too much like 2022 for Hamilton, who managed five runner-up finishes a year ago but never put it all together.

"We're similar mentality-wise (to where) we were last year, where we're just really working as hard as we can, staying one as a team, you know, trying to remain positive, as obviously it's a shock when you find out that car's not where you want it to be," Hamilton said. "But everyone's working on the solution. And I have 100% confidence in everyone just doing their job.

"You don't all of a sudden lose the ability to build great cars, it's just, you know, we're not where we need to be and where we want to be. And we just got to keep on working on it."