Lewis Hamilton revealed what surprised him about the first 14 Grand Prix weekends of the 2024 season when asked to compare 2024 to 2012.
Mercedes had a very challenging start to this season. As people within the team admitted by now, they came to Bahrain with a very different car from what they had at the end of the previous season, and their expectations were high.
However, it soon became clear that it didn't work, just like their previous concept. In the first eight Grand Prix weekends of the season, Mercedes's best result was P5.
However, in the following six races, the team managed to suddenly turn everything around and joined the fight at the front of the field, competing against Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.
The battle at the front has been super tight ever since the fourth round in Japan, and F1 fans have enjoyed the unpredictability of every race just as much as all the teams and their drivers.
After the final round before the summer break in Belgium, Lewis Hamilton was asked to compare 2024 to the famous 2012 season, which was also incredibly close and entertaining. He responded:
"I don't have a good memory, so I don't remember back then. But what I can say is it's great."
In 2012, there were seven different Grand Prix winners in each of the seven opening rounds of the season. Although it didn't happen in the opening rounds in 2024, we have also seen seven different Grand Prix winners already.
"It's really fantastic, I think, for the sport to be having such close teams and drivers. And, the pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing."
The 39-year-old then shared that he did not expect to compete against the top teams after Mercedes' challenging start to the season.
"Yeah, we didn't expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, with how we started off. So for us to now have closed up, it's going to be one hell of a second half of the season for sure."
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