2017 was the first genuine inter-team title battle Formula 1 had witnessed for five years. With Mercedes no longer monopolizing the top-step, the team could no longer relate the championship to an entirely internal affair. Not that the resurgent Scuderia was of much concern to Lewis Hamilton; the Brit had waited years to compare himself to quadruple-champion Vettel in comparable machinery.
Hamilton certainly seized the opportunity. Whilst Vettel drove a classy campaign, there were occasions where eventual champion Hamilton ascended to truly generation-defining greatness en-route to his fourth world title. His latent superiority was, at times, truly astounding.
Beyond the title-charging duo, 2017 treated the fans to some truly astonishing driving feats. It was a season where an exasperated double-champion went into PR mode, where the sport’s young prodigy set his sights on an imminent title tilt, where Force India’s young recruit showed his potential and where Daniel Ricciardo’s patented brand of overtaking became F1’s unofficial postcard image. It was another season of vintage performances from F1’s racing gladiators:
