Lewis Hamilton fears Max Verstappen will hand him unwanted record

Lewis Hamilton has won a race in every season he has competed in since making his debut in Formula 1 in 2007. In 2022, the Mercedes driver's record is at risk with Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen dominating proceedings with Ferrari being their closest challengers.

The seven-time world champion remains the only driver to win a race in every campaign that he has competed in. Hamilton admitted ahead of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday (Sept. 10) that he would like to maintain it by claiming at least one win in the remaining seven races.

The British racer now has one fewer race to avoid the unwanted record after Verstappen claimed his 11th win of the season. The Dutch racer is inching towards his second F1 title, and Hamilton could see his record come to an end in 2022.

Mercedes have struggled to maintain pace with Red Bull and Ferrari for most of the 2022 campaign. While the Silver Arrows have closed the gap, the Austrian team has been well out of reach except in Budapest, when Hamilton was genuinely in contention for the win.

"We have to be realistic, that Red Bull is almost unbeatable," Hamilton said after the Italian GP, as quoted on GP Fans. "It's going to take some real doing to beat that car. Performance-wise, they are fully ahead of everyone."

Mercedes have brought upgrades consistently during the campaign to improve their car, and have made big strides since the first race in Bahrain. However, Hamilton feels they do not have the scale of upgrades that will allow them to overtake the Red Bull, who are well ahead of the competition.

"We have not caught them, we don't have upgrades coming to overtake them so it's going to take some fortune going our way," he added. "It's not impossible because we could have beaten them maybe in Budapest."

Ferrari, who were expected to be Red Bull's closest challengers for the title, have also fallen away. The Italian team's strategy mishaps and poor reliability has seen Charles Leclerc's title challenge falter as the season progressed.

Verstappen now holds a commanding 116-point lead over the Monegasque driver in the Drivers' championship. Red Bull, meanwhile, are also running away with the Constructors' title with a 139-point lead over the Maranello-based team, who are being caught by Mercedes.