Formula One: How Lewis Hamilton can cement his status as the greatest driver of all-time

By Asher Fair | Oct 12, 2017

SUZUKA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 08: Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates on the podium with a Mobot during the Formula One Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on October 8, 2017 in Suzuka. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) /

There are four races left in the 2017 Formula One season, which gives Lewis Hamilton just enough time to set another remarkable record that no other driver has ever come close to touching.

Lewis Hamilton took the checkered flag in front of the rest of the field at the Japanese Grand Prix this past Sunday for his eighth victory of the 2017 Formula One season. Just four races remain on this season’s 20-race schedule. Those races will be held in the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

That gives him more than enough time to make history in a way that no driver has ever come close to doing before, not even Michael Schumacher, the lone driver who Hamilton trails in career Formula One victories (91 to 61).

Three different drivers have won 10 or more races in a season a combined seven different times. Those drivers are Hamilton, Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Before we get to Hamilton and how he can make history and add to his case as the greatest driver in the history of Formula One, let’s start by discussing the double-digit win seasons of Schumacher and Vettel.

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Schumacher had two seasons of double-digit victories. He won 11 races in the 2002 season and 13 races in the 2004 season. Vettel has also had two seasons of double-digit victories. He won 11 races in the 2011 season and 13 races in the 2013 season.

As you can see based on the years during which those two drivers won double-digit races, neither of those two drivers ever won 10 or more races in back-to-back seasons. However, Hamilton has.

In the 2014 season, Hamilton had his first double-digit win season, winning 11 races en route to winning his second career championship. In the 2015 season, he became the first driver in Formula One history to win double-digit races in back-to-back seasons, as he reeled off 10 wins to secure his third career championship.

While he did not win the championship in the 2016 season, he still won 10 races, stretching his double-digit win streak to three seasons while no other driver had ever even pulled off the historic feat in back-to-back seasons.

With eight wins this season, Hamilton is two wins away from yet another double-digit win season. If he is able to win at least two of the four remaining races on the schedule, he will extend his double-digit win streak to four seasons, quadrupling the next closest streak of one season.

Next: Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's record-setting accomplishment

There have been some dominant drivers in the history of Formula One. While Lewis Hamilton is not in a position to win his fourth championship in a row this season since he barely missed out on winning last year’s title to then-teammate Nico Rosberg, he is in a position to further assert himself as one of the greatest and most dominant drivers in the history of the sport with a fourth consecutive double-digit win season. Can he pull off the historic feat?

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