TREMAYNE: Records alone don’t make anyone the GOAT, but Hamilton’s qualities go far beyond numbers.

So is Lewis Hamilton really the best driver in F1 history because he won a record 92 races and legends like Sir Stirling Moss or Jim Clark won only 16 and 25 respectively?

It is a rhetorical question, of course. Each of us can only rationalize it in a personal way, based on a myriad of private judgments that we make that are usually totally subjective.

READ MORE: Jim Clark – What Made It So Good?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how Michael Schumacher – whose record, of course, Lewis finally broke in Portugal on Sunday – always believed that records were there to break. They are, of course, but the fact is that when many are established, it often seems like they will last forever.

Personally, I like to see record shakes. It’s a healthy sign for any sport or business that there is still enough interest and competition to see the bar continually being raised. Even if it sometimes hurts when our own heroes are deposed.

I didn’t know Jackie Stewart when he broke my hero Jim Clark’s record of 25 with 26, then 27 in 1973, but he was in conflict when Alain Prost scored 28 in 1987, because by then he considered Jackie, another hero, as a friend.

When Prost hit 51 in 1993, it seemed like no one would get over it, but I saw Michael do exactly that in Belgium in 2001, and in just five more seasons, to our amazement, he had raised the mark to 91. He was convinced that he would never see. that hit in my life.

PODCAST: Hear F1 Nation with Sir Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost and more

I was among the many who craned their necks in pleasure under the podium at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit on June 10, 2007, when a Stevenage youngster named Lewis Hamilton had just scored his first victory for McLaren, defeating Fernando Alonso, but anyone. of us did. So do you seriously anticipate the moment when Lewis first swept the line at the Algarve Circuit on Sunday afternoon, for the 92nd time?

I was there when Richard Noble broke the land speed record at Black Rock Desert in Nevada in October 1983, and again when Andy Green went supersonic there in November 1997, and I can tell you that watching Lewis gave me exactly the same excitement. . I may have mentioned last week how much pleasure records have always given me …

Does such an impressive numerical success turn someone into the goat? The best of all time?

Not necessarily. I confess that 91 wins and seven titles never made Michael the GOAT in my book for a lot of reasons that don’t have to stop here. It goes back to what I said about these things being very personal judgments. But only someone who has never tried and failed would discount or disrespect that level of success in any endeavor.

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Certainly, the times were very different each time we had a new winning record: since Giuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Alberto Ascari disputed the honor in the 1950s; Jim Clark surpassed the great Argentine in the sixties; Jackie, in turn, surpassed it in the 1970s, and Prost revised it himself in the 1980s before Michael overshadowed it in the 1990s.

In the 1950 season there had only been six F1 races, and in 2001 there were 17.

And the cars were significantly more reliable. There was a time when the 1961 Dutch GP was the only one in which all the participants had finished. In the 21st century, that became so common that it was easy to overlook the innate engineering brilliance of machinery. But it played a huge role in what people like Michael and now Lewis were able to accomplish.

The best cars looked bulletproof. Since joining Mercedes for the 2013 season, Lewis has won 70 races, an average of nearly nine victories a year. When Nigel Mansell did that for Williams in 1992, it was really big. It took Michael 156 runs to match what Alain 193 needed, Lewis 261 to match what Michael 246 needed. Just think of how these numbers call for long and relentless success.

ALTERNATIVE STORIES: What if Jackie Stewart hadn’t retired in 1973?

I have never believed that records are kept forever, not if a sport wants to show health and vigor and especially since by definition winning is harder every year.

Records are confirmation of progress and greatness. The machines are very important, but the record-breaking men are the men whose commitment and level of performance remain relentless and flawless, who can win not only with the best car, but sometimes with one that is not, or when the chips are low. , the weather is bad, or they are below average in terms of health. Like when Jackie had his ulcer in 1972, or Lewis drove Sunday with a cramp in his right calf that forced him to take off on the main straight in the closing laps.

Boxing legend Jack Dempsey once commented that a true champion is not just someone who can win when things are going well, but stands up when he can’t. There are always profound reasons why any record-breaking driver, or the equipment that their team provides, is outstanding. It takes a very special character.

This season Valtteri Bottas has shown an impressive ability to match Lewis’s one-lap qualifying pace on several occasions, and he deserves credit for that. But in many ways, the way Lewis triumphed at the Portuguese GP highlighted his true strength.

ANALYSIS: How clever thinking enabled Hamilton to solve the tire puzzle and win in Portugal

He was smart enough not to counterattack at the wrong moment when Valtteri overtook him on the first lap, but he waited for his moment before embarking on one of those relentless loads that forced him to overload his tires, caught him, and passed him. it then left him completely excited to the point where Valtteri didn’t even seem to try to set the fastest lap, nor did Max Verstappen, oddly enough, as if both rivals admitted they were beaten on that one before trying.

Just to rub it off, Lewis slashed a couple of tenths off his personal best, three laps from home.

If you wanted to choose a career to explain to an F1 rookie what makes him so special and why he has won 92 times, that is the one that stands on the closest scrutiny, as it left his closest opponent flailing after him. , completely demoralized.

READ MORE: Wet weather mastery and Monaco magic – the most iconic of Hamilton & Schumacher’s 91 victories compared

Pairing Michael Schumacher is an incredible honor, he had said two weeks earlier in Germany. And now you have exceeded your score. And he has done it all with extraordinary pace, grace, humility, courage and moral commitment, few major mistakes and the chivalric mix on the track of the spirit of a warrior and the honor of a medieval knight.

Could we soon hope, when a seventh world championship has been secured, that your country will recognize your extraordinary achievements by awarding you an eighth title, of another kind?