It's not a question of if, but it's a matter of when Lewis Hamilton will be crowned the 2019 Formula One Drivers World Champion. It seems very likely that the impressive feat will be achieved at the US Grand Prix this weekend. If for some reason that doesn't happen, the Mercedes driver still has two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi to seal the deal.

As it stands, Hamilton's lone challenger is his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. However, with a 74-point difference between them, Bottas will need to win all of the three remaining races. Not only that, Hamilton will have to stay mostly out of the points.

In order to secure the championship on Sunday, Hamilton only needs to finish better than 8th place. Even if Bottas wins the race, Hamilton will have secured the world title. If he becomes a six-time world champion, he will only be one short of racing legend Michael Schumacher's record. Right now, at five titles, Hamilton has already equalled the record of another F1 great, Juan Manuel Fangio.

Hamilton's championship campaign has been placed under threat by the resurgence of the Ferraris. After the summer break, Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has started from pole position in all six races so far. He won only two of those races and sadly fell victim to a series of unfortunate events and bad pit strategies.

The Ferrari resurgence ended up being too little too late especially since both Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel were trying to upstage the Mercedes drivers and each other.

Even when the Ferraris seemed faster, Mercedes always found a way to give their drivers and advantage on-track or through pit strategy. Nevertheless, the added pressure made the second half of the season a lot more interesting. In the end, it seems like it will always come to an inevitable result.

At this point, Hamilton's championship will either be sealed with an explosive victory at the Circuit of the Americas or he will have to be satisfied with a title win from elsewhere in the field. Either way, the Englishman will already have his eyes set on Schumacher's record, a goal that he will be targeting to equal in 2020.

Lewis Hamilton’s Rise To F1 World Champion