Formula One has always been a contentious sport when discussing who the best driver of all time is. Some will say Juan Manuel Fangio, others will say Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher. However, there’s arguably one name that is never mentioned: Sir Lewis Hamilton. Even with a raft of records to his name, the Englishman doesn’t seem to have entered the conversation, but maybe this season could be the year when he is considered the most successful and therefore best driver in the sport’s history.
As a result of Hamilton holding plenty of on-track records, it’s definitely fair to say that he could be considered F1’s most successful driver. The headline figure here is that he’s won the most number of races in the sport’s history, which is likely to entire triple figures in the next few weeks. Moreover, he’s also had the highest number of wins at a home Grand Prix with seven separate wins at Silverstone at a time when the circuit has undergone significant renovation, including the move of the start line from before Copse to before Abbey, and the removal of Bridge completely.
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It is of course worth noting that, whilst Lewis does hold all sorts of records, such as the most poles and highest number of wins at different circuits, that there is of course one that he is yet to break, and it’s arguably the most important. As he currently stands on seven separate world titles, one with McLaren and six with Mercedes, Hamilton has equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of drivers’ titles. It is worth noting that Schumacher faced similar complaints to Hamilton as he stormed to victory with that seemingly unbreakable bond with Ferrari in multiple years and it could be argued that history is likely to repeat itself again. The bookmakers would indeed concur as suggested by the F1 betting and World Championship odds that places the Brit as the runaway favourite for the driver’s title with odds of 1/4. That places him well clear of arguably his nearest competitor Max Verstappen, who himself has odds of 11/4.
However, even with all these records to his name, that hasn’t stopped a lot of fans questioning the legitimacy of such achievements in a way that even Schumacher didn’t face when driving for Ferrari. Hamilton has been subject to plenty of criticism over his tenure with Mercedes, given their dominance, leading some to question how many of those achievements are actually down to his skill as a driver. Indeed, the advent of Mercedes dominance from the ashes of Honda and Brawn GP in 2010 seems to have been the latest tale in a peaks and troughs battle for dominance for certain teams. Whilst Hamilton has indeed been a focal part of this Silver Arrows success, before them came Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, most famously in their RB6 car. Before that came Ferrari and, even before then, McLaren with the dream team of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
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It’s definitely fair to say that, if Lewis does win a record eight drivers’ title in 2021, he will be classified as the greatest driver of all time by some. However, drivers as prominent as Hamilton will and have always been subject to significant criticism as some question the true legitimacy of his achievements and draw parallels to the past as he is compared with the other all-time greats such as Senna, Farina, Fangio and many more. Regardless of this, however, the numbers will speak for themselves.