Top 25 Formula 1 drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top Formula 1 drivers of all-time: #4 – Lewis Hamilton
Old-school fans will say #4 is too high. Modern fans will say it’s too low to the point of disrespect. That is both why he’s not #1 and not outside the top 10. But Lewis Hamilton absolutely deserves to have his name in the discussion among the greatest drivers ever to drive a Formula 1 car.
With seven championships, a mark that trails nobody and is tied with only one other driver, and a record 95 victories (in just 266 races), Hamilton is the most successful driver in the history of the sport on paper. He has broken quite a few other records recently as well, and his pole record of 98 is now 30 clear of second.
He has won the last four world titles and six of the last seven, with a mere five points in 2016 being the difference between him being a seven-time world champion and a eight-time world champion/seven-time reigning world champion entering the 2021 season.
He also has recorded double-digit winning seasons on six occasions, including two streaks of three in a row. No other driver has ever recorded back-to-back seasons of that nature, and no other driver has recorded more than two overall.
There will always be the debate about whether or not he gets too much credit for the speed of the Mercedes car, given the dominance of the Silver Arrows since the V6 turbo hybrid era began in 2014. They have, in fact, won all seven world titles, both from a driver and constructor perspective.
But the fact that Hamilton has dominated his teammate battles, save for a slow start to 2016 that cost him a title to Nico Rosberg, goes to show that while the car is strong, he absolutely deserves credit for getting the most out of it race after race, year after year.