Lewis Hamilton has one more chance to avoid his first Formula One season without a victory, and it comes on Sunday in the place where he suffered one of the biggest blows of his career just a year ago.

Hamilton’s return to Abu Dhabi — where in 2021 he missed a record eighth title after a controversial late change to the safety car procedure while he was leading — comes with an opportunity to end 2022 on a high.

The prospects look a lot brighter with Mercedes ending its season-long winless streak with George Russell’s breakthrough win in Brazil last weekend.

Hamilton, a five-time winner at Yas Marina, still faces a big challenge and is not expecting any special treatment from Mercedes.

“Lewis doesn’t need any prioritization and it’s not what he ever would want,” team boss Toto Wolff told reporters after Sunday’s race at Interlagos when asked about the record and any help that might be given.

“I think he mentioned before that this race record of winning a race in every single season is less of a priority for him.

“It’s more that we are getting the car back to where it can be and we are racing for more race victories next year and hopefully for championships.”

Hamilton only needed six races to become a winner in his debut season, in 2007, and has won at least once in every season since then.

“I’m not focused on the record but of course, I’m trying to get that win this year,” Hamilton said in September.

“The record is not important to me, just because I don’t really care about records in general.”

The 37-year-old has finished second in his last three races and Mercedes has come a long way since the start of the season when its drivers were wrestling with a bouncing car that was not competitive.

“It’s still work in progress but we’ve had a good upgrade that we brought to Austin, we were solid in Mexico and now in Brazil which wasn’t the track we expected to be super-competitive we actually out-performed everyone,” said Wolff.

“That shows that we are getting there in understanding how to unlock the performance in the car and that is a good indication for next year.

“We have seen the positive trend over the last three races. Are we back at the domination (level)? No, we are not. I think Abu Dhabi on paper is much more difficult for us.”