Formula One: Michael Schumacher vs. Lewis Hamilton comparison
By Asher Fair
Lewis Hamilton is making it harder and harder every weekend to decide who the greatest Formula One driver of all-time is. Here is a comparison of him and Michael Schumacher.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, 32, is on his way to winning his fourth career Formula One championship this season and third in the last four years. He currently holds a 59-point lead over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with just four races to go, meaning Vettel can only get up to 100 more points this season.
Hamilton’s recent dominance and the fact that he is making himself known all across the Formula One record books has caused him to receive
And on a side note, for those of you who may be new to Formula One, the driver in the teal and silver car in front in the featured image of this article is actually Michael Schumacher despite the fact that that car looks similar to the one currently driven by Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton is in the red and silver car behind him.
All statistics used in this chart were gathered from Racing Reference.
Michael Schumacher | Lewis Hamilton | |
Starts | 306 | 204 |
Wins | 91 | 61 |
Win % | 29.74% | 29.90% |
Podium finishes | 155 | 115 |
Podium finish % | 50.65% | 56.37% |
Poles | 68 | 71 |
Pole % | 22.22% | 34.80% |
Full-time seasons | 17 | 10* |
Championships | 7 | 3 |
Championship % | 41.18% | 30.00%* |
10-win seasons | 2 | 3 |
10-win season % | 11.76% | 30.00%* |
Highest season win total | 13 | 11 |
Laps | 16824 | 11447 |
Laps led | 5065 | 3455 |
Laps led % | 30.11% | 30.18% |
*=does not include the 2017 season
Italics denote a lead in a particular category.
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As the chart suggests, Lewis Hamilton is certainly performing at the level that an all-time great performs at. However, he definitely has some work left to do yet if he ever intends to pass Michael Schumacher as Formula One’s best driver ever. He certainly can pull it off, as he is still only 32 years old, while Schumacher was 35 when he won his final championship back in 2004 and 37 when he won his final race back in 2006.
Many of the categories in which Hamilton trails Schumacher, however, he only trails Schumacher and nobody else. For instance, he is 2nd on the all-time list in career wins, career podium finishes and career laps led, trailing only Schumacher in each of those three categories. So he has definitely earned his spot in the debate as to who the greatest Formula One driver of all-time is.
Next: Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's record-setting accomplishment
The 2017 Formula One season resumes next Sunday, October 22nd, 2017 with the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Can Lewis Hamilton add to his impressive resume with his fifth win at the track in six years, his ninth win of the season and 62nd career victory? Tune in to NBC at 3:00 PM ET next Sunday to find out.