Paul Jeffrey
Premium
Lewis Hamilton secured championship success for the fifth time this weekend in Mexico, but is he one of the greatest?
It is often said in Motorsport that half the battle is to find yourself in the right car at the right time, something that Hamilton has achieved with aplomb during his 11 year stay in the top flight - often driving the best machine of the field and using it to good effect as he continues the push to secure the most race victories and podium finishes in the history of the sport.
However, when looking at the Britons career from a distance, the newly minted five-time World Champion has often struggled when put under pressure from within the team, a rare occurrence in itself, but quite a telling trait for one of the finest drivers of his generation.
Much like the great Michael Schumacher before him, Hamilton has rarely had a teammate of the same class as the 71 time Grand Prix winner, often finding himself as the main focus of attention from his squad as they look to challenge for title success in any given season. Of the occasions that Hamilton has found himself challenged from within his own ranks, the Englishman has occasionally shows signs of cracks that just don’t seem to appear when battling drivers from rival teams.
During his debut year in 2007 Hamilton would team up with newly crowned World Champion Fernando Alonso, moving from the Renault squad in what the Spaniard assumed would be a team leader role at Woking. Much to Alonso’s surprise, the Rookie GP2 champion would prove more than a match for his illustrious teammate, each driver matching the other move for move until the team focus appeared to steadily weigh towards the Brit, aided no doubt by the increasing inter team politics that favoured “home” driver Hamilton over the often difficult new recruit.
2007 would be a great season for Hamilton, coming so close to the title in his rookie year against stiff competition from within and outside of the team - but this would arguably be the final occasion in which the most successful British racing driver of all time would provide such a fine performance with an equal alongside him.
Fast forward to 2010 and Hamilton is now well entrenched in the McLaren team, having since dominated the outfit following the departure of Alonso at the end of a challenging '07 season, the Spaniard replaced by the firmly second string Heikki Kovalainen in the other silver car, a combination alongside Hamilton that never rose to the level of challenge afforded by Alonso back in that first season.
With newly crowned champion Jenson Button now on the market, McLaren would swoop for the British driver to partner up with Hamilton for the next three years. With Button having been fortunate to find himself in title winning position during 2009, many expected Hamilton to easily best the driver in “his” team..., however things didn’t quite work out that way...
Looking at the bare facts it clearly shows Hamilton had the pace advantage on Saturday afternoons, however over the course of the three years together it would be Button who led the way, the Frome Flyer taking more points over those three seasons than his more established team mate. What is more, Hamilton would show many signs of feeling the pressure from within as he spent much of the ‘10, ‘11 and 2012 seasons displaying out of character behaviours both on and off the circuit - who remembers his sharing confidential team telemetry with the media in order to try and explain why Button out qualified him at Spa as a perfect example of this internal pressure situation?
Mistakes and odd behaviours would follow Hamilton throughout the usually good natured but often pressured relationship with Button, increasingly highlighting the first signs that all might not be well with within Hamilton's mindset when really put under pressure from the man in the second seat.
With the start of 2013 came a move for Hamilton to Mercedes, teaming up alongside old rival Nico Rosberg as he left McLaren following an association that lasted throughout his junior career in the sport.
With Rosberg and Hamilton looking to build the team back into winning form once again, 2013 would be a relatively calm year for both drivers, with form swinging regularly between the two as Hamilton showed strong indications that he is back at peace with himself following severing of ties with the McLaren team.
Once the modern turbo hybrid era dawned in 2014, and it became clear that Mercedes held a considerable advantage over their rivals, that’s when the cracks in the relationship between the two drivers again began to surface. Rosberg, arguably the more technical and thinking of the two, Hamilton the raw talent and outright pace, began to form a dominant combination as they fought at the head of the field, despite Rosberg having never really shown title potential in his Grand Prix career up to that point.
Boiling point within the team would come at the conclusion of the 2016 season, Rosberg taking a hard fought crown against his teammate and showing that Hamilton is indeed beatable in Formula One, despite no-one really considering the German driver to be in the same league as his big name rivals in Grand Prix racing circles.
So the question remains, although undoubtedly exceptionally driven and talented, has much of Hamilton’s success come by way of being in the best car, with a support driver, or can the skills displayed by the man so far in his top flight career rank him as one of the all time greats of the sport?
At just 33-years-old, and with a new 2-year contract in his pocket, it is not beyond question that the Englishman could equal or surpass the records set by Schumacher all the way back in the mid 2000s. The question is, are the results a marker of the talent Hamilton displays, or a case of right place, right time?
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What do you think as to the standing of Hamilton against the best ever? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
