By Andrew Benson
BBC Chief F1 writer
Lewis Hamilton says it will take him time to come to terms with the momentous achievement that came with winning Sunday’s Eifel Grand Prix – equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of Formula 1 victories.
“It’s definitely not just another win,” the Mercedes driver said, as he sat down for his final media engagement of the day, after finishing his debrief with his team.
“I’m really just over this past hour or so trying to contemplate and realise what it is we have done and what I have been able to achieve. And I would say for the next couple of days that is where my mind is going to be.
“Just wow. It is hard to find the right words and be able to compute exactly, but it is definitely a special one.”
Hamilton’s 91st career victory equalled a record some felt might never be broken. He will move well beyond it before this season is over.
He is also now not very many races at all away from equalling another – Schumacher’s equally monumental accomplishment, of seven world championships. Hamilton’s victory at the Nurburgring put him 69 points clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, with just 156 still available.
As Hamilton spoke on Sunday, he tried to explain what it all meant to him at the same time as trying to make sense of it for himself.
He spoke of being “humbled” by the moment, “proud” of the work he had done with Mercedes these last eight years, and the “honour” he felt at being presented with one of Schumacher’s old helmets by the German’s son Mick, himself poised to enter F1 before long.
Hamilton described Michael Schumacher as “an icon and a legend of the sport”. He reflected on the “journey” that had got him to where he is, and the people who had helped him along the way – particularly his father, Anthony, and Mercedes and McLaren, who backed him from the age of 13, long before it was clear he could become what he has.
It was left to the two men on the podium with him at the end of the race, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, to put some meaning to Hamilton’s achievement.
“Ninety-one wins – everyone thought that was almost impossible to reach,” Verstappen said. “So to be there now is incredible and I am pretty sure there will be some more victories coming his way and probably also championships. Just very impressive. And hard to beat.”
“Tip of the hat, at the very least,” Ricciardo said. “Ninety-one races is nearly five years’ worth of races. That gives perspective on how much success Lewis has now had. Michael as well.
“To do it week in, week out as well, and year on year – his career has been well over a decade – and to keep coming back and to show that level of consistency at the front is not easy.
“We understand that. You can have the package and car to do it but doing it every weekend when the lights go out is easier said than done. So, big respect.”
A defining decision
As Hamilton surveyed his career, one moment stood out as the key turning point that led him to where he is now – his decision to leave McLaren at the end of 2012 and join Mercedes.
Seventy of Hamilton’s victories have come since that moment, but it’s easy to forget now that at the time many questioned his decision, for McLaren back then were a front-running team, and Mercedes very much were not.
“I knew it was the right decision for me and I wanted to be part of the journey of growing with a team that was hungry for success,” Hamilton said. “But that was one of the most difficult moments.
“I have been a very loyal person. I had been with McLaren since I was 13 so to decide to leave a team that had given me a place in the sport was very, very difficult for me. And to call your boss and tell them you’re leaving was damaging and emotionally difficult.”
The decision was based on a belief that Mercedes would be best-placed to succeed at the start of F1’s new era of hybrid engines that started in 2014, and that’s exactly how it has turned out.
But it is one thing to have the right car, quite another to keep a period of success going for as long as Mercedes and Hamilton have been able to – maintaining relationships, keeping motivation without growing complacent, what his team boss Toto Wolff described as “the relentless push for perfection and tomorrow rather than looking back”.
“What impresses me the most,” Wolff added, “is as a human being he develops from year to year.
“The Lewis Hamilton we see today has nothing to do with the Lewis Hamilton I met in 2013, and what is most impressive is that someone who is performing on that level is still capable of getting better inside and outside the car every year.”
Cemented among the very greatest
Hamilton’s landmark adds another dimension to the discussions of who is the greatest driver of all time. This is a difficult and controversial subject in all sports, comparing athletes across different eras and trying to work out who is best. But in F1, it is a more complex topic than perhaps any other, because of the influence of a driver’s machinery.
Hamilton himself said the debate was “not important” to him. But he did make a thinly veiled reference to some remarks made by three-time champion Sir Jackie Stewart, who in the run-up to the race had said he would never consider Hamilton in the same bracket as greats of the past such as Juan Manuel Fangio and Jim Clark.
“I don’t think you should knock anybody for the way they do things,” Hamilton said. “I get knocked by many people, particularly older drivers. I don’t know why.
“Maybe one day they will get over it, but I have so much respect for the past legends, even those who continue to talk negatively about me all the time. I still hold them in high regard. It was a different time in history. It was incredibly tough for them.
“And in 20 years’ time when I am looking back, I can promise you this, I will not be talking down any young driver who is coming through and succeeding. Because a responsibility as an older driver is to shine the light as bright as possible and encourage those.
“There will be someone else chasing the record I eventually set, and it is the wrong approach to be hoping he doesn’t break it. You should be encouraging them to live to their full potential and if that means them getting to that record, that’s amazing.”
It’s not just about the car
Hamilton has undoubtedly had the best car for the majority of the time over the last seven seasons in F1, even if Ferrari, particularly, had their moments between 2017 and 2019. But carping that this is the only reason Hamilton is breaking these records is missing the point.
For a start, Schumacher set his records for exactly the same reason – Ferrari dominated from 2000-05 in just as impressive a fashion as Mercedes have since 2014. And Clark and Fangio – and others who have achieved big statistics – also benefited from the best cars on the grid for much of their careers.
Why did these drivers find themselves in that position? Because they were the best of their time, just as Hamilton is now.
In addition to that, Hamilton has not been the only driver in a Mercedes since 2013. Hamilton won 32 races from 2013-16 compared to 22 for Nico Rosberg, who beat him to the title in 2016 only because Hamilton suffered much the worse reliability, even if Hamilton did not help himself with a handful of errors he probably would not make now.
And since Valtteri Bottas joined the team in 2017, Hamilton has won 38 races compared to nine for the Finn.
In qualifying, too, he has been on another level. His average advantage over Rosberg was 0.14secs; over Bottas it is 0.225.
Of his five team-mates in F1, only Fernando Alonso has really been on a comparable level, in Hamilton’s debut season – four wins each, tied on points, Alonso ahead when both finished races eight times to seven, and Hamilton just 0.003secs quicker on average in qualifying.
Jenson Button scored more points than Hamilton over their three years together from 2010-12, but that record is skewed by a difficult year for Hamilton in 2011, when personal problems affected his driving and he was involved in a number of incidents.
On other stats, Button was 0.201secs slower in qualifying, when Hamilton was ahead 42 times to 12, while Hamilton won 10 races to Button’s eight and finished ahead 28 times to 16.
It’s worth making the point, too, that Hamilton does not have the stains on his career that Schumacher had from the series of underhand incidents that cloud his legacy, most notoriously deliberately colliding with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in title-deciding races in 1994 and 1997, and parking on the track in Monaco in 2006 to prevent rivals setting faster times.
Plenty more to come
The record now equalled, and breaking it inevitable, the question now is how much further can Hamilton go?
“I am not done yet,” he said. “I still feel I am able to improve. I still feel I am driving at a really good level.”
He is already thinking of what’s next – his next Mercedes contract for next year and beyond, talks over which have yet to start; and the legacy he can leave out of the car, on anti-racism, and with the commission he has set up to understand and do something about the lack of ethnic diversity in motorsport.
“This has been a learning year with this pandemic,” Hamilton said. “I have had a lot of time to myself and at home in my bubble, which on one side has been not always the nicest but it gives you time to reflect and be present.
“In the past, life was just so fast, bouncing from one race and one event to the next. Way too fast paced a life. Hopefully when this thing passes us, I don’t want to go back to how it was before.
“When I get this contract in place, that will be a part of the discussion. Toto also realises that time is something you never get back. And family is everything.
“I am definitely going to take this next couple of days to try to understand, let it marinate.
“But what I cannot do is take my eye off the ball for a second. Yes, I have a gap, but the championship is still to be won. The job is not done yet.
“So training, diet, getting the right sleep will continue to be of importance. I don’t know what this week will hold. I have a lot of Zoom calls, with F1, the commission. I will be back in work mode.
“This moment will pass very quickly and we will be on to the next thing. I have a bad memory but I have to somehow make it stick.”