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Congratulating Lewis Hamilton on his seventh world title, Sebastian Vettel acknowledges that his lifelong rival is “the greatest of our era” without question.
Hamilton closed out a seventh Drivers’ Championship title with a brilliant victory in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.
Qualifying sixth, Hamilton briefly went off the track early in the race before being trapped behind Vettel, while the Racing Point drivers were lost in the distance.
As the track dried up, Hamilton rallied and moved up the ranks before overtaking Sergio Pérez for the lead.
In three laps he had put five seconds between himself and the Mexican driver, and took the victory on a set of soft intermediate tires for 31.6 seconds.
Vettel, who finished P3, was one of the first to congratulate the British driver and reportedly told him that he was the “greatest F1 driver of all time”.
When asked about that comment at the post-race press conference, the Ferrari driver acknowledged that Hamilton, who also broke the record for most F1 wins this season, is the best driver of the current era.
“Well, I told him that it is very special for us because today we can witness history,” he said.
“I think it is the greatest of our era without a doubt.
“I think it’s always difficult to compare… how is it possible to compare Fangio, Stirling Moss with our generation? You can not.
“Maybe we would be useless because we would all be shitting in those cars. Maybe they would be useless in our cars because they are too fast. Who knows.
“But it doesn’t matter, I think every era has its driver or drivers and Lewis is without a doubt the greatest of our era.”
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Hamilton’s numbers this season mean he’s now four wins ahead of Schumacher, who has been relegated to number two on the all-time winners list.
It also matched the German’s count for most drivers’ titles.
Vettel continued: “For me, certainly emotionally, Michael will always be the most… the best driver, but there is no question that Lewis is the best in terms of what he has accomplished.
“He has equaled the championships, he has won more races, he has many more poles, so I think he has done everything you can ask for.”
The Ferrari driver sees Sunday’s performance as proof of how good Hamilton is.
“I think today is the best test,” he added.
“It’s a tough race, a very difficult race to stay on the track and it’s two hours long and probably, if we’re honest, it wasn’t his race to win and he still won it.
“I think once again he managed to get something special out of that bag and therefore I think he deserves all that he has achieved.”
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