Tom Brady hailed Formula 1 drivers as “super talented” when asked about how he felt about Lewis Hamilton’s pursuit of his sixth career world championship.
It’s not often than an NFL press conference opens up with a question about Formula 1, especially not when the person being interviewed is the quarterback with more Super Bowl victories than any other player in NFL history.
But that is how the press conference of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady opened up ahead of the team’s matchup against the Baltimore Ravens tonight.
Brady, a six-time champion, was asked how he felt about Formula 1’s Lewis Hamilton being on the cusp of winning his sixth career championship, which would shoot him to sole possession of second place on the all-time titles list behind only seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.
Brady himself was on the cusp of becoming a six-time Super Bowl champion — twice.
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After leading a historic comeback from down 28-3 to beat the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 34-28 in overtime in Super Bowl LI back in February of 2017 to become a five-time champion, he set himself up to become a six-time champion the following year.
Unfortunately, his Patriots fell to the Philadelphia Eagles by a score of 41-33 in Super Bowl LIII in February of 2018. But one year later, they knocked off the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 13-3 to win Super Bowl LII, making Brady the NFL’s first ever six-time champion.
Hamilton, who became a five-time champion last year, has three chances to secure his sixth championship, and he needs pretty much everything to go wrong for him to not secure this title in this afternoon’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
More than likely, he will become Formula 1’s first six-time champion since Schumacher was crowned for the sixth time in 2003 by the time this 56-lap race around the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas concludes.
Brady offered high praise for Hamilton in this interview, but he even spoke very highly of Formula 1 drivers in general. Here is what he had to say.
"“I’ve kind of gone to a few of those races and those guys are super talented.”"
Indeed, Brady has attended Formula 1 races before, most recently the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix as a brand ambassador for Swiss luxury manufacturing company TAG Heuer, which had a partnership with Red Bull Racing at the team. He also attended the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix in this role.
It’s always great when real recognize real, especially across completely different forms of sport. A legend such as Tom Brady saying this about the entire Formula 1 field is nothing to take lightly.