Lewis Hamilton was the only man on the F1 grid not to vote in the drivers' Driver of the Year award this year.
The seven time world champion snubbed the annual concept following a difficult campaign, which saw him fail to record a Grand Prix win for the first time. His finish of sixth in the standings was also his lowest in his 16 seasons in the sport.
He did however, show sign of improvement in the second half of the campaign as Mercedes finally began to deal with the porpoising issues that plagued them earlier in the year. And the British icon is now being tipped to re-enter the title picture in 2023, alongside teammate George Russell.
But regardless, he was the sole driver missing when the votes were cast to the authorities for the drivers' honour, according to The Sun . Inevitably, it was Hamilton's arch-rival Max Verstappen who came out on top, having won the title by a massive 146 points.
Despite falling away after winning two of the opening three races, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc mirrored his position in the standings of second place. Perhaps surprisingly, Hamilton was joint-third with Russell.
That's despite Sergio Perez finishing third overall, ahead of Russell and Carlos Sainz. Regardless, Hamilton didn't appear overly concerned with any kind of awards this week as he took to Instagram to share pictures of a family skiing holiday.
At 37, speculation continues to grow on how long Hamilton will remain in F1, especially if he's unable to return to the levels of his prime. And in a recent interview with German outlet Sport BILD, he admitted he didn't want to retire a fading force.
"I think retiring as a world champion is a dream that every athlete has – and so do I," he said. And he admitted he was yet to open talks with the Silver Arrows over a new contract.
"We haven't started with that yet," he said. "So far we haven't had the time, we've been on the road for two months at a time."
