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Formula One: Will Lewis Hamilton catch Michael Schumacher’s win record?

By Asher Fair

SHANGHAI, CHINA - APRIL 18: Michael Schumacher (red helmet) of Germany and Mercedes GP and Lewis Hamilton (yellow helmet) of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes fight for position as they drive during the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit on April 18, 2010 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
SHANGHAI, CHINA - APRIL 18: Michael Schumacher (red helmet) of Germany and Mercedes GP and Lewis Hamilton (yellow helmet) of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes fight for position as they drive during the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit on April 18, 2010 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) /
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Will three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton be able to catch and perhaps pass Michael Schumacher, the only driver he currently trails, in career victories?

Three-time and likely soon-to-be four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton trails just one driver on the all-time wins list, and that driver is the driver who many consider the greatest of all-time: Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton, 32, has won 61 races in his 11-year Formula One career thus far, and he has never gone through a full season without winning a race. However, will he be able to pass Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 victories before he retires?

Schumacher won his final Formula One race in the 2006 season at the age of 37. Hamilton, meanwhile, is 32 years old and is on pace to secure a double-digit win total for the fourth consecutive season, something no other driver has ever even done two years in a row.

Hamilton has averaged between five and six victories per season, but that total has been much larger since the 2014 season when Mercedes introduced the Mercedes PU106A Hybrid 1.6 V6 turbocharger engine.

One more win in the remaining four races of this season will give Hamilton 40 victories since the start of the 2014 season, giving him a guaranteed average of at least 10 wins per season over the last four seasons when this season comes to an end at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

But will Hamilton be able to win 30 more races before his career ends to tie Schumacher’s record or perhaps 31 more races to break it?

Lewis Hamilton catching Michael Schumacher’s win record: SELL

Lewis Hamilton has been in Formula One for 11 seasons, but he has never had an noncompetitive ride. He spent his first six seasons driving for McLaren and has been driving for Mercedes since the 2013 season. He has never finished lower than 5th place in the drivers standings in his entire career.

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There are lots of young and talented drivers waiting to have a shot to drive for a team like Mercedes for which Hamilton currently drives, so it is unlikely that he will be able to continue driving for the team for another half decade until he is 37 years old. A total of 11 seasons driving for competitive teams is already a lot in Formula One, and 16 seasons is almost 50% more than 11.

Even if he does drive for Mercedes for five more seasons, which is highly unlikely in itself, Hamilton himself has reason to believe that there may be some other teams that can catch Mercedes as far as the competition goes even as early as next season, which would drastically reduce the chance that Hamilton is able to up his streak of consecutive seasons with double-digit victories even if that streak does indeed continue this year.

Here is what he had to say about the subject.

"“We’ve done an exceptional job with what we have. There are some really big problems which I can’t really explain to you. But we really need to make sure we rectify them for next year’s cars if we really want to fight both Ferrari and Red Bull when they step up their game.”“There is a lot of work for us to do — but there’s nothing we can do, it’s the way the car is. People have been saying all year long that we’ve got the best car. It’s a fact at some races that the car has turned out to be better but overall, globally, I think it’s worked out that we haven’t.”"

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

With everything factored in, it would be a challenge to make a prediction and stick to it as far as Lewis Hamilton catching and passing Michael Schumacher’s all-time Formula One win record goes, especially since Hamilton needs to add about 50% of his current victory total to his current victory total to be able to reach 91 and 92 career wins.

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