This time last year, there was no guaranteeing that we were ever going to see Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car again.
All fans got was radio silence from the seven-time world champion for a couple of months after he was cruelly denied an eighth. It's understandable that the way in which he suffered defeat to Max Verstappen in that Abu Dhabi 2021 season finale caused him to consider his future.
After several weeks of absolutely nothing from the Brit, a few hints were dropped. Both Hamilton and his Mercedes team began leaving small breadcrumbs for fans to follow, including a video of the F1 star on an early morning run through London with his physio and long-time ally Angela Cullen.
It was on February 11 last year when some form of official confirmation came. Mercedes put out a news release a week in advance of their car launch event for the W13, in which Hamilton was referred to as one of "our 2022 drivers" – finally, iron-clad evidence that he would return.
Of course, last season was not what he would have had in mind. He and new team-mate George Russell spent much of the year simply collecting as many points as they could, with their car incapable of challenging for race wins on all but just a few occasions.
But even despite what was, statistically, the worst year of Hamilton's F1 career, there is something different about him these days. All of a sudden, a man who was once so adamant that he wouldn't still be racing in F1 beyond his 40th birthday appears to have a second wind.
As F1 returned from the summer break at the end of August, he was talking about how he is still "deeply in love" with the sport. Fast-forward to the end of the season – his first winless campaign in F1 – and Hamilton declared how "powerful" it felt to be scrapping for points, rather than again being the dominant force.
Then came the moment his fans had been waiting and hoping for. "We are going to do another deal," he declared. His current contract expires at the end of this year, but both the driver and his team have pledged to work out an extension.
It hasn't happened yet, which is a little surprising. Hamilton did spent a fair amount of time globetrotting earlier in the winter break – including a stay in Antarctica. But he has been back in season preparation mode for a while now and, given how easy Toto Wolff implied negotiations would be, it does seem a little strange that there is no news on that front.
But it is likely no cause for concern. Hamilton has made it clear Mercedes is more to him than just an employer. He recently described the team as his "family", saying: "I believe in the people that are within the organisation. And I want to be the best teammate I can be to them, because I think we can make the brand even better, more accessible, even stronger than it is. And I think I can be an integral part of that."
The passion with which Hamilton says these things is obvious. For a while, there was a feeling that he might have been going through the motions a little bit, when it came to F1. Was he fully, absolutely committed to the sport in the same way he was when he came into it as a hungry young prodigy?
Whatever the answer was a year ago, nowadays it is undoubtedly an emphatic yes. He is in the twilight of his career now, no matter how long his impending extension ties him to an F1 race seat. But Lewis Hamilton looks primed and ready to go for a while yet.
