Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Mugello, 2020

Being one win from equalling Schumacher’s record “doesn’t seem real” – Hamilton

2020 Tuscan Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says it’s hard to believe he can equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record for most Formula 1 career wins at the next round of the world championship.

The Mercedes driver’s victory in Sunday’s Tuscan Grand Prix was the 90th since his debut in 2007. Schumacher won 91 races in a career spanning two decades from 1991 to 2012, though his final victory came in the year before Hamilton’s debut.

“It just doesn’t seem real,” said Hamilton, who has now won 69 races since he replaced Schumacher at the Mercedes team in 2013.

“Obviously it’s ultimately a privilege to be in a position and have such a great team and a car to be able to deliver weekend in, weekend out,” he said. “I just feel forever grateful to the people that continue to work hard. I’m just a link in the chain.”

Hamilton’s victory yesterday was his sixth of the season. Team mate Valtteri Bottas has won just one race, in the season-opening round at the Red Bull Ring. He finished second to Hamilton for the third time this year on Sunday.

“Getting the wins is not easy when you have a great driver in Valtteri pushing you the limit, weekend in, weekend out,”Hamilton added. “But I never thought that I would be here, that’s for sure.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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102 comments on “Being one win from equalling Schumacher’s record “doesn’t seem real” – Hamilton”

  1. Much sharper rise in number of wins assisted by a dominant car, team and higher number of races/season

    1. Yep keep playing it down. Hamilton is rubbish lol.

      1. Nope, while Lewis is one of the greatest drivers around (and I say one of the greatest, because in my opinion it’s not possible to compare different eras of F1), he’s not wrong that on average there are 4 more races in a season in the last couple of seasons compared to MSC in his prime. And there’s no denying that the Mercedes team is the most dominant team (in absolute and relative numbers) in F1 history. That said: you still need drivers to deliver on the potential of the car.

        1. I dunno, knowing how F1 was run back then, the power Ferrari had and the extra treatment Schumacher received, I would say he had more going for him than Hamilton does now.

          1. Totally – preferential treatment in the team, team orders making the number 2 driver allow Schumacher to win, and dirty play from Schumacher.

            And on Hamiltons side, the longest period of dominance in a team on record.

            Both had their advantages, and both the best of their eras.

    2. You mean like Schumacher had in his career along with the fact that due to team orders his teammates had to give up wins to him too on a number of occasions.

    3. Higher numbers of races? Then do it by %age. But that answer won’t suit you either as Hamilton beats MS, Senna, Prost, and now Clark on % of wins. And beats MS on poles and podiums by total numbers and %ages.
      Baring any disasters he will end up as the most successful driver of all time, and arguably the greatest. (along with probably a handful of other contenders for the GOAT.)

      1. Try Fangio

        1. Fangio wouldn’t last long in a race that generated 6Gs of force on his neck.

          Different, incomparable eras.

      2. I believe 2014 onwards Lewis has certainly overtaken Jim Clark for the highest % wins , podium and laps lead not sure how his entire career compares to Clark and Fangio in terms of %s.

  2. It’s really quite unreal that Schumacher’s seven titles seemed like an Everest, and sixteen years on, someone’s going to equal him. The reasons are various but not many could be so consistent and now almost terrifyingly clean in their performances, hat off to Hamilton for that.

    1. Definitely, HAM is very good. I remember thinking lots of times that Mercedes wouldnt have won this one if they didnt have him in the car. So kudos. But 7 WDC is also due to the car. I guess with less dominance of the car his tally would be 3 or 4 WDC

  3. It would be really wonderful to see Hamilton accepting a new challenge in a new team. He has a teammate he has beaten three years in succession (decisively), there is little more he can achieve with Mercedes beyond the next season (by that time he could have 8 titles and the rest of so far standing records) – just pilling up numbers – wins, poles…

    Sadly, no other option seems logical in my opinion. Ferrari is in chaos as a structure, from which it will not recover in several years at least, and Red Bull is simply not up there – on occasions yes, but it lacks the consistency, their relationship with Honda is rather difficult and unstable. The level of commitment from Renault and Aston Martin is uncertain as of now. The budget gap is likely to bring teams together but it will take time…

    Taking all into account, Hamilton moving into another team would simply mean that the next most promising driver would take his place alongside Bottas and the current scenario would happen all over again. Even if Hamilton had moved to Red Bull, we would not have seen the mighty scrap between him and Verstappen, as the latter would be the driver moved into the Mercedes seat with almost 100% certainty.

  4. I see Lewis continuing till at least 150 wins. He needs to increase the benchmark himself else Max himself might beat Lewis’s records.

    1. All records will be broken. But max won’t do anything. The next best guy still brewing in the nurseries.

      1. Or in someone’s pants…

    2. I think 150 is a bit of a stretch, car continues to perform well and he isn’t too old, but let’s say red bull next year (example) produce a car that compares to mercedes like the 2018 ferrari did, then verstappen could definitely win the title and significantly reduce the amount of races hamilton wins, and keep in mind hamilton should naturally decline from here on just because of age, he should lose 1 tenth a year or something, at least that’s how drivers normally go, so who knows, maybe 120 depending on the performance of the car and how long he decides to stay and how fast he declines.

  5. I am not a Hamilton fan but his achievements are fantastic, probably the greatest driver ever. However, it is a bit hypocratic to say from him that Bottas pushes him weekend in, weekend out. Bottas is no match to Hamilton, it is more than obvious. Rosberg was really pushing Hamilton, so for the sake of entertainment i’d like to see Hamilton having stronger team mate, not necessarily Verstappen type, but at least a bit stronger. But if i’d be Mercedes, I’d probably do the same – having reliable No. 2.

    1. Hamilton’s records show how underrated Rosberg was (me included).

      1. Particularly in the mind games and generally being ruthless, like the great champions of old even.

    2. My opinion for what it’s worth was that Rosberg never really pushed Hamilton at all. Hamilton came up through the lower categories with him and always had his measure and to be honest never really seemed to take him seriously.

      As much as Rosberg likes to think he was getting under his skin and pushing him, Hamilton just seemed to play along and then just put in a bit more effort to completely dominate near the end of the season. He paid the penalty for being so blasé about it when a mechanical failure messed it up.

      Bottas – whole different attitude from Hamilton. He’s still supremely confident, but knows now he has to keep himself at the top of his game each race.

      1. Don’t forget the strong correlation between Rosberg’s win and Hamilton’s DNFs that year, because at the end of the day that’s what it came down to.

      2. I actually still give massive credit to Rosberg for winning 1 season. But it was obvious that Hamilton deserved that championship many times more than Rosberg did. That’s probably why it was so incredible that Rosberg still managed to win it.

        Were it not for Spain, Malaysia, the constant reliability issues and the 1st 4 wins Nico was smart to put in, Nico would have lost.

        1. Weird year

          LH had more wins, podiums and poles that yeaR.

          NR had more points and won but did not ‘beat’ him as such.

          He did win something else that year.

          More penalty points For poor driving errors than anyone else!

        2. @freelittlebirds Three of those 4 first wins were because Hamilton had techincal issues (ERS failures meant he couldnt set a time in Q3 for China and Russia) or that he got punted off (Bahrain he had a start system fail and got rammed by Bottas)

          So 75% of that was also due to (technical) issues for Hamilton. How is that an “incredible” achievement for Rosberg?

          Plus then Spa where Hamilton had to start from the back because of all the broken power train parts he needed to replace. And Singapore where Hamilton had technical issues during practice and of course a DNF in Malaysia when in the lead.

          Well over half of Rosberg’s wins in 2016 were due to issues for Hamilton.

          1. @f1osaurus I agree with you – if you reverse Spain where Nico torpedoed Lewis to prevent a 14 point swing, Lewis wins.

            Take away the failure in Malaysia, Lewis wins.
            Take away the ridiculous reliability issues, Lewis wins.
            Wasn’t Spa, the race Lewis could have won from the pit lane? If Mercedes let him win that race, Lewis wins.

            Lewis reigned supreme on track that year and that was evident in all rankings aside from points. The final race was almost comical.

            Even so, Nico still managed to score 5 more points. And that’s still an unbelievable effort and result by Nico. As we’ve seen Bottas can’t even come close to that and can’t build a lead nor sustain it and it’s not for lack of trying. He’s working at 120%, giving it his all and it’s still not enough.

            I hated Nico – to a degree that I’ve not hated anyone in sport except maybe Sergio Ramos:-) – but I’ve learned to respect the effort it took for him to win and which led to his eventual retirement for Formula 1. To win against Lewis, he had to become a person he wasn’t and he managed to sustain it over an entire season just to give himself a chance to win at that championship. From that perspective, he deserves every F1 fan’s respect.

            Every athlete who finds themselves unable to compete against a superior athlete should look at Rosberg’s 2016 season and learn from it.

          2. @freelittlebirds Realistically Rosberg would win only 1 race out of every 4 if both of them had a working car. Bottas has done that too. I really don’t think there is much between those two. Rosberg had it easier too since the car was further ahead. If Rosberg lost to Hamilton at the very least he’d get P2. Bottas doesn’t have that luxury since 2017.

            Biggest change is that from the second half of 2018 Hamilton really upped his game to another level. People like to pretend it’s Mercedes dominance, but he really blew away Vettel, Leclerc and Verstappen (and Bottas). Not (just) because of the car, but especially because he also won many of the races where he didn’t have the fastest car.

          3. @f1osaurus I think the rivalry between Lewis and Nico was very different than the rivalry between him and Bottas. The gloves (or hats) were literally off between the former 2. Also Rosberg’s style helped him on many tracks making Lewis have to work harder.

          4. @freelittlebirds The fact that Rosberg was a cheating unsportsmanlike driver didn’t help him one bit in 2016. It was solely the races where Hamilton was out of contention that Rosberg won.

            Bottas also defends quite fiercely when he’s in the lead. Look at Silverstone 2019. Still that only works when he is ahead already.

            The difference is that the rules of engagement have changed. Since that Silverstone race where Hamilton converted to 1 stop while the team thought 2 stops was best and Bottas took that option and lost the race, they are barely allowed to attack each other. They are not even allowed to use different strategies to attack the car in front. No overtake. No engine modes (when they still had those).

            Q3 and the start is really the only time they can do something.

            Hamilton is just so much better though. He really levelled up another notch. Bottas is also doing great, but it’s just not enough in Q3 and since Hamilton can usually focus more on the race setup, Bottas has even less of a chance during the race.

          5. Many comments don’t have reply button, I wanted to say that I used to defend bottas and say: but rosberg had such a dominant car in those years that he only really needed hamilton to have some unluck to beat win a title, no one else could compete, but now in the last 2 years bottas had a dominant car too, and he didn’t get anywhere near close, so these 2 years I’ve stopped considering bottas rosberg equal and liken him more like to barrichello, not in the sense he was a contractual number 2 (will never believe it unless I read the contract), but in the sense his performance had nothing on schumacher, like bottas now on hamilton.

        3. The only saving grace is that Rosberg retired leaving a decided team to become even more focused on winning.

          If you recall they swapped the garages, so Rosberg got Hamilton’s heroes, whilst Hamilton’s inherited a crew with divided loyalties. So yeah, go figure.

          Whatever it takes.

          1. ** divided team.

            Dam auto correction :-/

  6. Bottas does push hamilton atleast with qualifying. But this could be due to car set up. I tend to believe that hamilton balances quali set up with race set up with a bias towards race set up. Even with rosberg. I think thats 1 of his strenghts. He also tends to have less tyre degredation than his partners. Which leads me to believe my point. Hats off to lewis. And mercedese. The 2 together are like the perfect fit. Its 1 thing to have a dominant car. Its another to always take out all of the performance required to win week in and out.

    1. Exactly, on the long runs Hamilton was 3 tenths faster, but on quali simulation Bottas was slightly faster. That would indicate a difference in focus rather than Bottas actually being faster overall.

    2. I agree – I feel that Lewis has been doing that for many years now. He tries to make qualifying competitive but focuses on race pace more. After all, this gives him better odds at getting wins and more points – in many ways Sundays accound for 2/3s of the race. Perhaps more if you include fastest laps and grand chelems. You could argue that Sunday is worth 70% of the weekend. Even if he loses pole, he has better race pace, he’s positioned to get a win, score more points and also overtake his teammate which will have a huge impact.

    3. I agree with all of the above. Lewis is a master at car setup & pace management. He’s very adaptable & knows how & when to extract what he needs from the car. The first standing restart was a perfect example of his focus & preparation: Lewis’s brakes were the only ones smoking on the grid. All the drivers warm their brakes on the formation lap (helps get tires up to temp also) but judging from the smoke billowing out, Hamilton’s brakes were the best prepared for a late braking lunge into turn 1.

  7. I feel sad for Bottas because no matter how hard he tries, no matter how many tricks he tries to master, Hamilton is destroying him that it’s just demoralizing. At the beginning of the season, he pumps himself up just like anyone would do, in the safe knowledge that he got the best car on the grid to put up a championship fight and win it, but then his efforts are always short, because just across the garage is another monster of a driver. It reaches a point you start asking yourself, what more can I do? Yes he might win the odd races here and there and be actually faster than Hamilton during that race weekend, but the consistency isn’t there, reason why Hamilton is strolling towards that 7th WDC. I REALLY FEEL FOR HIM. That 1st WDC title is so near with that car yet so far with Hamilton as his teammate.

    1. I dont feel sorry for him. During the Hamilton years the other ‘stars’ signed long term contracts with lesser teams and picked up the scraps. Bottas was required to pick up the pieces when Hamilton had a bad day; and generally he did. On a good Bottas day; albeit only a few times a year, he took on the best driver of that generation in equal machinery and beat him to poles and race wins. That’s not too shabby a record. And he was paid well compared to other drivers to have the chance to do that. I think he can proud of what he has achieved.

      1. @riptide +1 and at the end of the day, he was part of the team with some of the greatest achievements in F1. There are 2 ways of looking at this – one that he was unlucky to compete against Lewis, the other that he was damn lucky to have the opportunity to compete against him. Hulk could have easily been in his seat if he didn’t have ties to Toto. All these years he was still competing with Max and Seb, 2 of the best drivers to ever race.

    2. If redbull wasn’t so close there would be some attempt to ‘man manage’ a couple of sure things for him… that said he is normally the man for the Russian Grand Prix, so we shall see.

      Hamilton though, might be pushing even harder for that all important record breaking win… will there e any fans at the next race? That too might be factor for any celebrations.

      1. I think it is the other way around, all though Mercedes might look at it as you suggest.

        Hamilton has first place in the WDC as secure as possible. They merely need to focus on keeping the car reliable and competitive.

        1. I would argue they need to prioritize results for Bottas when convenient. Not meaning they ask Hamilton to pull over. but I would be hesitant to sacrifice race places for Bottas to cover Hamilton.

          Supporting Bottaa will make him stronger, it is my opinion his mental state is important. More importantly, the threat to Mercedes WDC victory is something prevents Hamilton from racing. Like Covid. Supporting Bottas helps keep points away from Verstappen, and ensure the Bottas is ahead of Verstappen.

          1. @slotopen I think you could see the change from Hamilton too. In Spain he still gave the tow from the start to Verstappen (which put Verstappen in P2 and Bottas in P3). In Spa you could see him give the tow to Bottas which kept him in P2.

  8. No matter how many records Lewis breaks there will still be people who say that Senna was the greatest and can never be matched. Same with most other sports, people will always have an opinion on who the “GOAT” really is.

    1. Yes, for example I’m still gonna say schumacher was better, and that there are definitely other drivers I’d put above hamilton, such as fangio, clark, maybe ascari, he was like fangio’s equal, prost as good as hamilton, as well as alonso.

      For me it’s not about the specific number, hamilton could win 10 titles and 120 races like this, it’s not gonna make him better in my eyes, I want him to show something on a subpar car, like schumacher, alonso and many other drivers (including senna) did.

  9. I will feel good about these records being held at last by a racer who is clean.
    A sporting competitor, in every sense.

    And yes he’s had the best car recently, but I do think this and his drive and consistency are inspiring for the team, and have made a difference.

    1. Well, as a schumacher fan and someone who likes honesty, obviously this was a flaw schumacher had.

  10. A lot of people said he was crazy to go to Mercedes back in the day and he won’t win anything there.

    Now a lot of people complain they helped him win too much! 😂

  11. Has there even been a driver who was was getting so many wins so fast for so long? I think not.

    During Hybrid era, Lewis seems to win every second race he enters. About 10-11 races depending on the year. Only in Rosberg championship year he was slightly “under-performing” @ 9 wins.

    Quite amazing. So next year, should he continue with Mercedes, he should be well above 100.

    It seems unreal? No it does not. Just rate at which he is winning, in stable regulations as we have right now, it is very predictable, we hill continue winning at this rate in the near future atleast.So that will be 8 years of 10 races per year. This year he is even better, but the year will have less races.

    So now We can come in and say Schumacher was getting more wins faster earlier in less competitive cars.

    But Many Hamilton victories came from era where Seb Vettel had the supreme car/driver combo. Nevertheless, with a bit different contracts, Hamilton might be stuck at 30-40 range like Alonso.

    It is surprising what supreme talent can do with some luck. We can guess with some hope, that never again this will be replicated. But all teams will work hard to achieve same supremacy as soon as possible, and every year Mercedes/Hamilton team maintain this.. we will be plotting this graph further at 10-11 per year.

    That being said, Bottas has no answer for Hamilton most of the time, next year might aswell see 15 Hamilton victories.

    1. @jureo

      I think it is important to give Hamilton some credit for this.

      We don’t know whether his move to Mercedes was luck or very good networking and judgment.

      We do know that he seems to work very well Mercedes. He had a pretty good run at McLaren too, including some incidents that would have been very frustrating for most drivers. So I’m inclined to say that compared to some other drivers he works well with the team and that is a distinct advantage.

      1. He deserves every bit of luck he got, but there was plenty in joining Merceds.

  12. Looking at the graph I wanted to do some random statistics.
    Number of races/starts from the driver’s first win to the last: (numbers might be off by one or two races)
    Schumacher: 229 races (’92 Belgium – ’06 China)
    Hamilton: 254 races (’07 Canada – present)

    Or as victory percentage:
    Schumacher: 39.74 %
    Hamilton: 35.43 %

    As great as Hamilton is, Schumacher’s strike rate during his “first” career is still absolutely incredible. Once he started winning, basically just 1993 and 1996 were “off” years (against the might of Williams and his first year at Ferrari, respectively). For Hamilton, 2009, 2011, and 2013 were somewhat “bad” years. I suppose both drivers could have reached 100 wins by now if some things had turned out differently.

    1. For me, Schumacher was a brutal (though occasionally flawed) genius of a driver and by all accounts a likeable, quiet family man out of the car. Hamilton, I’d argue, is an equally superb driver…

      My problem with Hamilton is that while very clean, he’s an undoubted drama queen driver and can easily rub people up the wrong way. Just look at his t-shirt on yesterday’s podium – while the argument may have its merits (I have no idea what it’s about and don’t plan on digging) it’s the way he can’t help but bring his drama to yet another deserved win.

      I think the only thing that stops me declaring Hamilton being the GOAT is the way he occasionally gives up. It only happens once every season and it’s when he’s in 7th with 7 laps to go – he just seems to dip his shoulders and get grumpy on the radio. Schumacher never got like that and would fight until the finishing line.

      1. Drivers back then, didn’t have to drive to preserve their engines, they could afford too flat knowing there was no penalties on parts, so go figure.

        Hamilton has matured as a driver, this includes knowing when to go flat out and knowing when to save your powder for another day. Its a lesson the likes of verstappen could do with learning.

        1. ** afford to go flat out

        2. I agree, Hamilton’s great at knowing how much capacity’s left in his car. Driver-wise, he’s near faultless.

      2. @joshgeake Since you are not interested to find out what is at stake, let me fill you in. Cops in the US are killing black people at will. They entered this persons house by mistake and shot her dead. Many, many white cops have killed innocent black people and got away with it. Many many kudos to Lewis to stand up for that

    2. I wonder if the racing public were gripping then at Schumacher’s dominance…oh hum.

      1. I was a big Schumacher fan and I’ll gladly admit I didn’t watch 2004 for obvious reasons.

    3. Yeah but from what I’ve heard, Schumacher was a 1 man team. This cost him at Mercedes where they didn’t favor him over Rosberg and he had genuine troubles. Having a driver who has the same equipment and is allowed to score more points is very disconcerting and puts more pressure than all the other teams and drivers. God forbid the team favors another driver – you’re done. Look at Gasly, Albon, Vettel, Raikonnen, Webber. Even Hulk had trouble performing with Ricciardo coming in as the de facto #1 and I’m sure Hulk is slightly quicker on a single lap. Oh, I forgot Vandoorne and Perez at McLaren. Even Lewis had trouble being competitive at McLaren against the Whitmarsh-Buttton duo. Btw, that’s how Niki brought Lewis to Mercedes – he said the word Whitmarsh and Lewis stared at him for a second and then asked Niki “Where do I sign?”.

      1. I think different fans look for different traits in what they consider their favourite driver or GOAT.

        Personally, look for their ability to drag results out of poor days/cars. Schumacher could do this and was nearly champion in several seasons with sub-par machinery. It’s something that Hamilton hasn’t really had a chance to show for a long time because of Mercedes’ dominance. That said, I suspect he’d do it well, if he could get his head around it.

        1. I cannot call greatest a driver who rams into his direct WDC opponent in the last race of the season to win the title. MS had done that twice and got away with it once. Happy to call him the driver with the most victories and titles, but no more than that.

        2. @joshgeake Lol, Hamilton has pulled wins out of dogs of cars plenty of times.

          Also, people pretend Mercedes was dominant in 2017 and 2018, but Vettel was well ahead half way through those seasons, but he cracked when Hamilton applied the pressure.

          Auto motor und sport calculated that Vettel should have won 2018 with 54 points ahead. That’s the extent of how much all his blunders cost. 2017 the gap was smaller, but Vettel would/should have won with less blundering.

          Actually 2019 also, Bahrain, Baku, Monaco, Canada, Hungary, Russia, Mexico were all races were Hamilton was not in the fastest car yet had a better result than you would expect on car base alone. Mexico he had the third fastest car actually and still won.

          1. Also, people pretend Mercedes was dominant in 2017 and 2018, but Vettel was well ahead half way through those seasons, but he cracked when Hamilton applied the pressure.

            Vettel was only ahead in those championships because it was Mercedes and Hamilton who had cracked earlier in the season.

            Mercedes were always the quicker car and it was credit to Vettel that he took the fight to Mercedes.

          2. @f1osaurus
            “Actually 2019 also, Bahrain, Baku, Monaco, Canada, Hungary, Russia, Mexico were all races were Hamilton was not in the fastest car”

            You mean all those races where Hamilton had the fastest car (by miles), as been proven by the previous races and the constructor title, failed to qualify on pole and making it look as if the Mercedes wasn’t the fastest car?

          3. Ha, ha David Bondo. How did Hamilton crack? He took plenty of wins from the start of the season too, when Ferrari clearly had the fastest car.

            Vettel was already blundering from the start of the season too, but he really cracked from Germany. When he had by far the fastest car and put it in the wall while miles in the lead.

            The only thing Vettel did was throw away the potential of that car. He blundered away 8 races!

            @Oconomo, No, Hamilton clearly did not have the fastest car. Ferrari had the faster engine, but neither driver managed to put a proper race together. If it was just Hamilton performing poorly then Bottas would have been ahead of him. Bottas was nowhere near Hamilton.

            Mexico was the most obvious example. Verstappen had by far the fastest car, but royally messed up three times during one race. After that were the Ferrari’s, but Leclerc had his usual race slump where he races his tyres to shreds and then disappears back. Vettel was just his usual colorless self. Hamilton destroyed the lot of them.

        3. @joshgeake Lewis is the master of qualifying, the master of wheel-to-wheel racing, the master of setting up a car, and the master of racing with rain. He’s as sublime as Federer at his absolute best, as tenacious as Nadal and Djokovic facing match points, as unstoppable as Ronaldo against the very best teams in the world, and as talented as a young O’Sullivan clearing a snooker table in 5 minutes, and as dominant as Michael Phelps under pressure.

          Probably the most underrated athlete of all time.

          1. And yet, over a season in equal cars, he was beaten by Rosberg and Button.

          2. @joshgeake “Beaten” is a relative term.

            As Lewis proved, Button was a 1 lap down driver in 2012. The only reason Button got more points is McLaren’s, Button’s, and other drivers’ incompetence. Is it impressive that Button scored more points? Sure it is especially since Button was 1 lap slower like Gasly compared to Verstappen at Red Bull.

            As for Nico, as Lewis proved in every race with Nico when they raced together Nico could never overtake Lewis and keep the position while Lewis could run circles around Nico even in 2016. Does Nico deserve everyone’s respect for doing the impossible and scoring more points? Sure, read my other posts. He should write the bible on how to win when you’re a world class athlete but not the best in the world.

        4. Indeed, something that elevates schumacher above hamilton and alonso at hamilton’s level is that they overperformed with bad cars, hamilton never really showed that, just had a really short period in the 2009 mclaren, he just had a strong or dominant car always.

          1. No, he won numerous races in 2010-2013 with a sub-par car. I just think that, had Vettel gone to Mercedes in 2014, we would be looking at a 7x WC Vettel and a 1x WC Hamilton. That’s not to diminish Hamilton’s talents, just a reminder that the car is very important and Lewis is no exception.

    4. I think you have the figures the wrong way round

    5. I agree schumacher was better, however this 229 number sounds weird to me: didn’t schumacher have something like 254 races before he retired the first time and like 307 the 2nd time? 229 would mean you missed more than a season.

      1. Ahhh, you excluded all races till schumacher won, I see!

  13. It’s all a little hollow.

    The sport hasn’t been legitimately competitive now since 2014.

    All that’s been proven since 2017 is that Hamilton is quicker than Bottas.

    1. I don’t know about that. When Lewis wins pole, they put his name at the top of all drivers, not just Bottas. Does Russell get pole position for being the quickest in a Williams or Max for being the quickest driver in a Red Bull?

    2. The problem is more how poor Vettel is. With a better driver at Ferrari, 2017, 2018 and 2019 could have been a WDC for them.

      1. “The problem is more how poor Vettel is. With a better driver at Ferrari, 2017, 2018 and 2019 could have been a WDC for them.”

        You mean that same Vettel who, in 2017 and 2018, extracted so much more from his car than Bottas and Hamilton together, that for a while it seemed like we had an actual championship……until Mercedes released another 50bhp and handed the title to Lewis on a silver platter?

        You mean that same Vettel who, from 2009-2013, in more or less equal cars wiped the floor with Lewis?

        With 2 better drivers, Mercedes would have won 95% of the races since 2014 with a 1-2 finish.

        1. ROFL indeed. Especially that 2014 claim must be one of the dumbest things I have read today. The only three races they didn’t win were two races where Hamilton retired because of technical issues plus one where he had to start from the pitlane.

          Who would have been better than Rosberg though? Ricciardo perhaps? Indeed he destroyed Vettel and beat Verstappen 2 out of 3 seasons. But then at that time no one knew. Plus, I don’t see Ricciardo excel at every track like Hamiton does. Maybe Alonso? I doubt he still had it though and Hamilton beat him already when he was still a rookie. So who then?

          That’s what people overlook. Hamilton is always there. Verstappen can be fast sometimes, but he makes a ton of mistakes (still) and he has these off weekends (like Hungary and Monza) where he suddenly has no clue how to get the car to perform and is 1 second slower than the car should be. Vettel just spins. Leclerc can do a good Q3, but he can’t do a good race.

          Maybe Hamilton is flattered by the poor opposition he’s getting, but he’s still bringing it almost every race and that’s incredibly difficult.

      2. Your fairytale of Ferrari having a title contender in 2019 has already become an evergreen on this site. The reality, on the other hand, points to the fact that Mercedes had both championships sealed by Monaco.

        1. @pironitheprovocateur What fairytale? How can you even try to pretend that Ferrari did not have the faster car for Bahrain, Baku, Canada, Austria, Spa, Monza, Singapore, Russia, Japan and Mexico? They truly should have won half the races in 2019.

          Just because out of those 10 they managed to throw away 7 wins by poor performances and internal squabbles?

          The reality is indeed that the Ferrari drivers blundered away Bahrain, Baku, Canada and Austria. Which meant that Mercedes won most of those too and instead of only 5 races vs 4, they won 9 out of the first 10 races. That’s not because of Mercedes dominance, that’s Ferrari driver/team incompetence and/or Hamilton being a much better driver.

          1. @f1osaurus
            Interesting how Hamilton fans always use reliability as an excuse to why Hamilton lost the 2016 title with a dominant car, but somehow when talking about 2019 unreliability doesn’t matter anymore.

            Hamilton had bulletproof reliability in 2019. Vettel retired from mechanical problems in Russia and USA. Leclerc lost a win in Bahrain. Both Ferrari drivers had mechanical problems in Germany qualifying.

            Why this double standard?

            Likewise, Ferrari was clearly not the best car in Japan or Austria. In Japan, Mercedes had half a second per lap advantage on race day. In Austria, Verstappen dropped to the midfield at the start and still won. I won’t bother arguing with the others because we’ll just go around in circles.

            At the end of the day, in 2019 Ferrari had a car that was about equal to Mercedes on qualifying pace, but had vastly inferior race pace and tyre management, and also inferior reliability.

            Qualifying pace and race pace are not the same thing, unless you want to argue that Mercedes had the best car in 8 races in 2013?

    3. +1 on that. One qucik stat: with his 52nd carreer podium, Bottas has surpassed Mika Hakkinen’s tally. Amazing how this one short sentence can tell it all about the worth of Hamilton’s records as well ;)

  14. Despite his achievements, Schumacher will be remembered for his ruthlessness and poor sportsmanship.
    His “accidental” collisions with others to destroy their races and further his own chances (Hill, Villneueve). Team orders at Ferrari, bespoke tyres that even his team mate didn’t have access to, parking at the final corner in Monaco qualifying.
    I agree with others you cannot compare eras of drivers reliably, but you can compare sportsmanship, and here there is a clear winner in Hamilton.
    Makes him all the greater in my opinion.

    1. Michelin altered tyres for each of their teams and had significantly more testing data than Bridgestone. They were the faster tyres in the end.

      Schumacher had a ruthless streak but he comes from a different era where the likes of Senna and Prost were just as if not more ruthless.

      Sure, Barrichello moved over in Austria 2002 but Schumacher paid back the win at Indianapolis 2002.

      Hamilton still owes Bottas for Russia 2018. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was Bottas.

      The idea that Schumacher owes his championship to Barrichello moving over has taken on a life of its own at this point. It’s just a lie.

      Also, Schumacher was forced to move over for Irvine in Malaysia 1999 and forced to compromise his race for Irvine at Suzuka 1999.

      1. Agree Dave the chicken.
        Schumachers incidents with Hill and Villneueve were disgraceful.
        By the standards of the time they were highly unsporting, and widely condemned, by today’s standards he would likely have a ban on his super license and points docked.
        How he wasn’t stripped of the wdc the year he collided with Hill in the final race (after he had already crashed and broken his own car) is unbelievable.

      2. Agree with david bondo, schumacher gets accused of these team orders but was more fair than hamilton on that considering he gave the win back.

        1. Esploratore, the point here seems to be mainly about Schumi’s lack of sportsmanship, deliberate crashing and sabotaging others. Not about team orders.
          Do you think it is right to try to take out other drivers by damaging their cars? Or spoiling their qualy by causing the session to end by parking on track?

  15. would George Russell (or any other mercedes junior) be that donminant or quick if he were in lewis’ seat? .
    he has a genuine talent but does he or any other driver have the ability to problem solve or have the awareness that Hamilton has .

  16. All the negatives regarding Lewis are understandable when you consider the source .
    It’s a fact that most if not all great drivers of the pass had a very good car to drive.

    However when you look at the number of races it has taken Lewis to reach 90 wins compared to Schumacher it’s absolutely astounding!

  17. I’ll be happy to see him take the record, he’s been an incredible driver through the whole of his career. I remember him coming into the sport in 2007 and it was breath of fresh air (he was pulling off overtakes that no one else could and a raw speed that others struggled to get near – you can seem similarities to Verstappen when he entered the sport). In the UK, it felt like F1 was gaining popularity with him in the sport. In his rookie year he more than matched the current 2 time world champion – nowadays if a rookie is 3 tenths behind their teammate it’s seen as a good effort.

    Through the early 2010s despite some great wins, it didn’t always go well, but you saw him learn from his mistakes and become the driver he is today. Since the 2016 season, he upped his game again and the consistency he has shown since has been insane.

    The records he has, such as being the only driver to win in every season, shows how good he is. However, as with 99% of sport people, he’ll only get the praise from the community once he’s retired and someone new is dominating.

  18. “The records he has, such as being the only driver to win in every season, shows”
    Nothing but the fact that he is the only driver in F1 history to drive a race winning car/championship contender in every season.

    1. The best usually do. Unless they are idiots who keep signing for the wrong team, or lock themselves into long term contracts elsewhere so they don’t have to face proper competition.

    2. Yeah he’s rubbish that Hamilton chap innit

      1. He’s certainly an outstanding talent, but it’s true that probably no other driver in history had a title challenger for 11 out of his 14 seasons in the sport (excluding 2009, 2011 and 2013). And the number will rise (still it rises) next year, too.

        1. This true. Just found it funny that it means “nothing” :)

    3. If only Verstappen would be able to help his team develop the car better. Red Bull have the resources. Even more than Mercedes with the hundreds of millions that Honda is pumping in that engine. Why do they keep developing the car in the wrong direction? Every season again they start on the back foot! Then they blame it on 20bhp gap to Mercedes.

      They need a driver with experience and good feedback like Hamilton to help them move forward. Not sure there is any other driver on the grid today who could equal that though. 8 seasons in a row Hamilton keeps helping Mercedes make a new step forward

      Also, someone to motivate the team to become better when something goes wrong, instead of throwing everyone under the bus after a poor result.

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