Felipe Massa gave three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton extremely high praise, comparing him to two of the all-time greats.
Three-time and soon-to-be four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, 32, earned extremely high praised from fellow competitor Felipe Massa, who has 11 Formula One victories to his name and has finished as high as 2nd place in the drivers standings, which he did in the 2008 season behind Hamilton when Hamilton won his first career title.
Many people consider Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna the greatest Formula One drivers of all-time while hesitating to put Lewis Hamilton in the same discussion as them. But Felipe Massa doesn’t hesitate.
Schumacher holds the all-time Formula One win record with 91 career victories, and he holds the all-time Formula One championship record seven career titles. His pole total of 68 is 2nd on the all-time list.
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Senna, meanwhile, won 41 races and took 65 poles in just 162 starts and won three titles before being killed in a tragic accident in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Hamilton trails only Schumacher on the all-time wins list with 62 career victories, and he just passed him for the all-time record in pole position starts. He has started from pole position 72 times now in 205 starts, and if…(well, let’s not mince words here)…when he wins his fourth career Formula One championship this season, he will trail only Schumacher (7 championships) and Juan Manuel Fangio (5) in career titles won.
Here is what Massa had to say about Hamilton.
"“Lewis is definitely one of the best drivers in the history of Formula One. You cannot really take him away or [place him] in a different level compared to Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. He’s there.”“All the time you saw Lewis in the car he was impressive. He impressed the people in whatever category he did. It was the same with Ayrton Senna. It was the same with Michael Schumacher. The problem is people always love to look back and say in the past it was much better than now, which is not true.“If [in football] you see Cristiano Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi and some other players, maybe even Neymar will be very soon on that level, they have nothing to lose compared to Maradona, Pele or whoever. It’s the same here.”"
Next: Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's record-setting accomplishment
Is Lewis Hamilton deserving of the extremely high praise Felipe Massa that gave him? Given his track record in Formula One, it would certainly seem like he does. Is Hamilton perhaps even better than Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, both of whom are all-time greats? You could make the case for that as well, especially since he is still performing at his best and has been doing so in each of the last four seasons now.