F1 fans make feelings clear on Lewis Hamilton winning a race with Mercedes this season | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton has been tipped to break his win drought with a race victory for Mercedes before the end of the campaign. Hamilton’s last victory was a staggering 26 races ago at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.

It has been the longest spell the seven-time champion has not been on the top-step of the podium since he joined F1 back in 2007. However, according to a new Express Sport poll, Hamilton is expected to taste success once again.

A staggering 70 per cent of readers believe the British icon will win at least one race in 2023 with just 30 per cent believing he can’t. Hamilton had won a Grand Prix in every season he had competed in F1 until the run came to an end last year.

Instead, teammate George Russell secured Mercedes’ only win of the 2022 season after cruising to P1 in Sao Paulo. The latest poll results come after Hamilton gave Mercedes some optimism for the new campaign in Australia.

The 38-year-old picked up P2 in Melbourne to secure the team’s first podium finish of the year. Last month, Hamilton publicly criticised his Mercedes engineers after admitting bosses had not listened to him over the W14’s design.

He demanded mechanics were held accountable as he called on individuals to “own up”. In Saudi Arabia, Hamilton accepted his remarks had crossed the line as he admitted his intention to return the German marque back to the top.

He explained: “I still have 100 per cent belief in this team, it is my family, and I’ve been here a long time, so I don’t plan on going anywhere else. But we all need a kick, we all need to get on.

“The proof is in the pudding, we’ve seen where the performance is and how people are extracting the performance. We’ve got to now start making some bold decisions, some big moves, in order to close the gap to these guys.

Hamilton added: “Hopefully at some point during the year… we’re hopeful we might be able to close the gap.

“At that point it will be probably too late in terms of fighting for a championship, but we can still turn some heads hopefully.”