For a driver of his stature and with a résumé like his, even a single season like last year’s disappointment is a bitter pill to swallow. Enduring two in a row, however, would risk leaving a lasting mark on his legacy.

Not because his achievements or statistics would suddenly be erased, but because in Formula 1 — and in sport more broadly — people tend to remember the most recent chapters rather than the full body of work.

That is the danger Hamilton could face in 2026: calling time on his career only to be remembered by a new generation as the driver who arrived in Maranello to restore Ferrari to former glory, but instead ended up taking heavy defeats at the hands of his team-mate — even if that team-mate is undeniably one of the very best on the grid.

A difficult season can happen to anyone, even to a driver capable of winning seven world titles and racking up more than 100 victories and pole positions. A second campaign along those lines, however, would be far harder to explain.

For Hamilton, 2026 has to be the year he delivers. Above all, it is his chance to shake off the label of a driver who failed to adapt to a major regulatory shift, as happened throughout the entire ground-effect era — with the same risk now looming as Formula 1 prepares to enter yet another new set of regulations.

The Briton undoubtedly produced the very best of himself across the 2010s and into the early 2020s, utterly dominating the hybrid era — at least until his reign came to an end in late 2021, when Max Verstappen snatched the crown from him in the controversial and bitter Abu Dhabi finale.

The picture in front of him is therefore fairly straightforward: one final season to prove — if proof were ever needed — that he can still be the Hamilton who thrilled fans for more than fifteen years, and then hang up his helmet regardless of any contractual clauses that might otherwise keep him on the grid in 2027.

Finishing 2026 ahead of his team-mate, or even as world champion should Ferrari finally deliver the long-awaited title-contending car, would cement him once and for all as the greatest champion of all time.

Failure to do so, however, would risk dealing the final blow to a downward trajectory that has inevitably begun with age, with another disappointing season likely to draw a definitive line under his Formula 1 career.