Lewis Hamilton may have missed out on a historic eighth world title, but his record still marks him out arguably the greatest of all time.
Who would have thought anyone would have come close to Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Formula 1 World Championships when Hamilton equalled it last year?
Lewis Hamilton’s win at the Turkish Grand Prix in 2020 secured his seventh title after previous successes in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
But in 2021 it was a different story, as Max Verstappen claimed his first championship with Red Bull in controversial circumstances.
However, Verstappen has a long way to go to match Hamilton overall, who holds the record number for most pole positions and race wins.
We have crunched the numbers to see how the legends in the sport compare…
How Hamilton compares to the other greats
- In terms of championships, Hamilton is the joint most successful driver of all time, level with Schumacher on seven titles.
- Hamilton is two clear of Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio on the all-time leaderboard. Fangio won five titles in the 1950s.
- Hamilton won four titles in a row from 2017. The record of consecutive F1 championships belongs to Schumacher, who swept all before him in securing five title wins on the bounce between 2000 and 2004.
- Hamilton has won 103 races. He overtook Schumacher’s previous record of 91 with victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix in October 2020. They are head and shoulders above the rest. Vettel is in third place with 53 wins.
- Hamilton has won more than one in every three races (36%) he has participated in his career (103 wins from 288 GPs started). Of all drivers who have taken part in at least 50 grands prix, only Fangio (with almost one in two – 47%) has a better win rate than Hamilton. However, Hamilton has been involved in at least three times as many races as Fangio, sustaining his win rate over a much longer period of time. Hamilton has a better win percentage than Schumacher, whose 91 victories came in 306 races (30% win percentage).
- Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna both won about one in four of the GPs they took part in. Frenchman Prost recorded 51 wins from 199 races, while Brazilian legend Senna secured 41 wins from 161 grands prix before tragedy struck in Imola in 1994, when he was killed in an accident.
- Hamilton is way out in front in terms of pole positions – he has an all-time record of 103. Schumacher is in second place with 68.
- Hamilton has won a grand prix when leading from the first lap to the last on 23 occasions – the most of any driver. Senna is second having done so 19 times.
- Hamilton is in second place in terms of fastest laps, with 59. However, he has a long way to go if he is to catch Schumacher on 77.
- Hamilton has completed a ‘hat-trick’ of securing pole position, winning the race and recording the fastest lap on 19 different occasions. Schumacher is ahead with 22 hat-tricks.
- Hamilton is in second place in the list of drivers to have completed the most ‘grand-slams’. He has achieved the rare feat of taking pole position, winning the race having led every single lap as well as claiming the fastest lap in six grands prix. British driver Jim Clark, who won two titles in the 1960s, has the most grand slams with eight.
Where does he shine?
- Hamilton’s most successful circuits are Silverstone and Hungaroring with eight wins. Only Schumacher has also won eight times at the same grand prix, doing so in France.
- He has the won more British GPs than any other driver, with eight wins on his home circuit. Clark and Prost each have five victories. Hamilton has finished on the podium every British GP since 2014.
- Hamilton has won seven times in Canada, where he won his first ever race in 2007.
- He has a great record in China as well, with six wins and a total of nine podium finishes.
Where are his least successful tracks?
- Hamilton has fared badly in Malaysia, recording just a single win. Luckily for him given his dismal record there, Malaysia was removed from the race calendar after 2017.
- Melbourne has been the land of second place for Hamilton as he finished behind the leader in the last four Australian GPs, winning only in 2008 and 2015.
- Hamilton struggled in Brazil in the early part of his career, failing to win in any of his first nine races in Interlagos. He has since recorded three wins there in 2016, 2018 and 2021.
Thanks to Forix.
This article was originally published by Bbc.co.uk. Read the original article here.