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- Lewis Hamilton is facing down his longest F1 victory drought in almost five years.
- If he fails to win Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix, he'll be winless in four races.
- The last time that happened was in 2016, the only year since 2014 where Hamilton was not F1 world champion.
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Lewis Hamilton is staring down his longest run without a victory in almost five years ahead of this weekend's Styrian Grand Prix in Austria.
If Hamilton fails to win it will have been four races since his last victory.
The last time Hamilton failed to win for four or more races came at the end of the 2016 season, when between the 13th and 17th rounds his then-teammate, Nico Rosberg, won four races, and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo won another.
That year Hamilton ultimately won 10 Grands Prix, but went on to finish in second place in the Drivers Championship, behind Rosberg, who won by just five points.
It is the only season in the last seven where Hamilton was not crowned champion.
Red Bull tests the dominance of Mercedes
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The F1 circus heads to the first of two stops at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend for the eighth race of the 2021 season, a season that has, so far at least, been the most exciting in years.
Several years of total Mercedes dominance have given way to a tug-of-war between itself and Red Bull. Red Bull currently leads the way in both the Drivers and Constructors Championships, having taken four wins to Mercedes' three.
The team has also just completed its first hat-trick of victories in the turbo-hybrid era, which began in 2014.
It is testament to Hamilton's recent dominance that in the past four seasons he has not had to endure more than three races without a win. The last time it did happen, it ended with someone else being crowned world champion.
Hamilton's 2021 rival may no longer be his teammate Rosberg was in 2016, but Red Bull's lead driver Max Verstappen appears to finally have the car to match his talent and give the seven-time world champion his toughest test since Rosberg's retirement.
So far in 2021, Red Bull is looking sharper than it has since its last Constructors Championship win in 2013, and cracks are starting to show at Mercedes.
Last weekend's French Grand Prix was Mercedes' to lose when strong winds pushed pole sitter Verstappen wide on the first corner allowing Hamilton to take the lead but, in a rare occurrence, Mercedes got its tactics wrong.
Red Bull ran a two-pit stop strategy, while Mercedes opted for the one-stop approach in the hope their drivers could hold on on aging tires.
In reality, both Verstappen and Perez sailed past Hamilton and Bottas respectively and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was left ruing a rare tactical mistake.
-Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2021
Mercedes would likely have wished for a different race to bounce back as it travels to Red Bull's home circuit in the hills of Austria. Hamilton's record at the Red Bull Ring does not make for great reading.
Of his eight races at the track in recent years, Hamilton has won just two, while Verstappen has been successful in two of the last four.
It has, however, been a happy hunting ground for Hamilton's embattled teammate Bottas. Bottas has secured two of his nine total Grand Prix victories in Austria.
Speaking after the French GP, Hamilton said his team had to "dig deep" to pull closer to Red Bull this season.
Failure to win in Austria would not only see Hamilton enter his longest win drought in five years, but could also see Red Bull and Verstappen start disappearing over the horizon.