2018 has been a remarkable year for British Motorsport. Lewis Hamilton has become a 5-time F1 champion and 20-year-old George Russell claimed the F2 crown and a seat in Formula 1 for 2019.
The F1 season was brought to a close at the weekend with another Lewis Hamilton victory; 11th of this incredible season. Lewis now joins a very elite club alongside Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as having won at least 5 championship crowns.
Before the racing started in Australia back in March, we were braced for another Lewis Hamilton v Sebastien Vettel season-long battle. In the first half of the season, this was the case. Vettel took 4 wins and Hamilton 3 in the first 10 races, but all was to change in race 11 at Hockenheim.
Vettel had qualified on pole for his home race and Hamilton only 14th. Lewis had to fight his way through the order as the Ferrari was in control out in front. All until Vettel slid off the track and into the barriers when it began to rain. Hamilton clawed his way into the lead and took an incredible victory. The Mercedes man had turned a potential 33-point championship deficit into a 17-point lead.
Hamilton went from strength to strength and won a further 7 races, including the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Vettel only won once more in 2018 and eventually finished 88 points behind the Brit.
There are a few differences between F1 and its feeder series F2. They only travel with the F1 circus to 10 events over the year but race twice over the weekend, a feature race and a sprint race.
George Russell began the season going head to head with fellow Brit Lando Norris, but began to pull away after a few poor results for Norris nearing the end of the season. Russell claimed the championship after winning 7 races including the feature race in Abu Dhabi. 68 separated the 2 Brits at the end of the season.
Both Russell and Norris have been rewarded for their fantastic season with F1 seats for 2019 at Williams and McLaren respectively.
We hope George Russell can help push Williams back into the points and Lando Norris finally see McLaren back amongst the top teams where they belong? One thing we know for sure is that the 2019 Formula 1 season is going to be a good one.