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On Sunday, November 15, 2020, Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won his seventh Formula One world title, equaling the record set by German legend Michael Schumacher, but the title of “greatest in history” will remain controversial for the next several years. years.
AFP takes a look at some of the numbers and facts about drivers. Who is the greatest among them?
Numbers
Hamilton has played 14 seasons at the World Championships during which he has competed in 264 major trophies since his debut in 2007, compared to 19 seasons and 307 races for Schumacher split over two terms (1991 to 2006 and 2010 to 2012).
In 2020, the Briton broke two records for Schumacher, the first of which was the number of times he was on the podium (163 against 155) and the number of race victories (94 against 91).
Hamilton clearly stands out in terms of starting from first place, where he won this honor 97 times, compared to 68 for the German. However, the latter achieved the fastest lap 77 times compared to 53 times for the Briton.
At 35, time is running out with the Briton, although he has not yet started negotiations with his Mercedes team regarding the renewal of his contract, which ends this season.
However, statistics and figures can sometimes be misleading.
The number of races per season has increased over time, and in the Schumacher era he averaged 16 races per season compared to 19 with Hamilton.
In the golden age of Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the world title five times in the 1950s, the average is just eight races per season.
talent
For Mercedes coach James Allison, who worked with both drivers, it was their “unbridled desire” for victory that made them more than just “very good drivers”.
“All great heroes have more in common than differences between them, in the sense that they all have extraordinary determination,” he said.
He added: “The idea that Lewis still cares about winning trophies with the same enthusiasm he enjoyed as a child at the age of 18, is what sets him and Michael and the great heroes apart from each other.”
But in terms of her opinion on the greatest among them, there is no answer for Alison, who considers that “unless they run side by side in a car, you cannot determine that.”
When it comes to speed on the track, Hamilton and Schumacher are more or less on the same line as the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna, a three-time world champion.
A new study, heated by Formula One, using artificial intelligence technology, showed that Schumacher was 0.114 seconds slower than the Brazilian, while the Briton ranked third, 0.275 seconds behind Senna.
Competitors
With three world champions – Fernando Alonso, Britain’s Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg – as teammates at McLaren and Mercedes, Hamilton faced fierce internal competition throughout his career.
On the other hand, his current dominance over Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas is no different from Schumacher’s control over Rubens Barrichello at Ferrari.
The French driver, Roman Grojean, considered that, far from his peers in the teams in which he competed, “Michael had perhaps a little more competition than Louis.”
“On the track, Michael has had some suspicious little clashes with Britain’s Damon Hill and Canadian Jack Villeneuve … As for Lewis, he has always been great,” added the Haas driver.
The car and the team
Hamilton moved to Team Mercedes in 2013, which has a car that beats all other teams.
This was the case for Schumacher with Ferrari between 1999 and 2004.
“Since joining (Mercedes), I have managed to influence the car and make a lot of adjustments, especially in 2013,” said the Briton.
In the current year, drivers have also benefited from much technical assistance, which has become more sophisticated, as well as technological improvements.
“Schumacher was driving almost alone when he was racing,” Bernie Ecclestone, former executive director of the World Championship, said in an interview with AFP.
The British “can not say anything bad about Lewis, you can not say that he is not good, the idea is not here.”
He added, “How good is he compared to someone else? Well, he’s amazing, he’s really talented, and he’s definitely in the top five of the last thirty years.”
And he concluded: “Is he better than Michael? Would Michael have been better in this (Mercedes) car? That cannot be determined.”
