Alright when was that again.....?

[Peter Eckhardt]

First I am German so maybe not fair enough .Loius is a very very good driver enormus talent no questons about that, but Michael had the complete package .
His talent was no so high like Louise . Michael was living formular 1 every minute in his life . He was training his body ,he understands the physiks of a car and he was reading telemetrie data when other dirver relaxing .He was a manager and he can analyse whats wrong (like Lauda) and he was a big teamplayer .Not he won the race it was the Team and he had good privat relation to his engineers and mechanics

 

[FFF789]

Pointless subject until you reach certain age and/or get to understand the sport and what it takes. So in this case, it took George Russell to hop into that car and see it clearly and obviously. So meeh... a racing driver is nothing today without a great car, great team of engineers, mechanics etc. Not so much in the older days, and less and less so the farther you go back.

 

[fatal4you]

Pointless subject until you reach certain age and/or get to understand the sport and what it takes. So in this case, it took George Russell to hop into that car and see it clearly and obviously. So meeh... a racing driver is nothing today without a great car, great team of engineers, mechanics etc. Not so much in the older days, and less and less so the farther you go back.

Exactly, that why I think the FIA should add a new regulation to keep the sport in motorsport: No team is allowed to retain a driver longer than 3 years.

 

[GTR233]

F1 rules are biased to answer this question. Car performances are 80-90% of victory. I am not sure that Hamilton is the best driver of the last 10 years so telling that for all-time is certainly inexact. To be sure, for 2021 season : give the same mercedes to all drivers and we will see ...not so far I recall nico rosberg who beat him on same car.
A funny seat swap : make a race with hamilton in redbull and verstappen in mercedes and we will see

 

[Gadaga]

In 2020 Lewis Hamilton surpassed Michael Schumacher for the record number of F1 wins, and equalled the German for World Championships too - is it time to call the British driver the all-time greatest?

95 wins. That's pretty unbelievable. I clearly remember the Schumacher era and thinking to myself that the German driver will never, ever be surpassed for his records after achieving pretty much legendary status during his first stint in the sport (as a Damon Hill supporter I was no fan of the bloke btw).

Just 14 years after Schumacher ended his Ferrari career, we are likely to see all the German drivers records smashed by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, begging the question - are we seeing the Greatest of All Time in action?

The argument for.

The records speak for themselves. At the time of writing Lewis Hamilton has scored 95 wins, 166 podiums, 98 poles and seven World Championships. At just 36 years of age and clearly hungry for more success, it is highly likely the Brit will collect many more accolades, points, wins and titles before he decides to walk away from Grand Prix racing.

Hamilton has scored his successes for two different teams, and has won races in each of his seasons in the top flight of Formula One, almost taking the World Championship in his very first year in the sport.

Hamilton has passed the records of greats like Fangio, Senna, Schumacher and everyone else in Formula One, and still looks like he has plenty of time left in the top flight to further move the goalposts for future generations.

The argument against.

While the wins keep racking up for Hamilton, it would be fair to say the driver has a significant car advantage over his rivals, and without a strong teammate or much in the way of fierce competition to rival him on a Sunday afternoon (remember Senna had Prost, Mansell, Piquet, Rosberg etc / Schumacher had Hakkinen, Hill, Villeneuve, Alonso) it could be argued many of the wins have erred on the side of being his to lose, rather than his to win.

Now no driver ever wins a World Championship in the worst car in the field, but does having such a potent combination behind him these last few years dilute the end result somewhat, or is it a case of the best car is provided to the best driver?


Discuss (but keep it civil please)

View attachment 413095

No... certainly not... Another driver borrows his car and is best of the field straight away without ever haven driven it...

It's just the best car and team and not the best driver!

 

[Ssd 88]

I think Ayrton , Prost and Michael are on top, the heroes of Formula 1. It is not about how many World Championships. It is about the driving style. And the challenge to drive a tough car, like the v12 and v10 eras. And to drive in a tough conditions. hamilton was lucky to race in a time where the F1 cars are super easy to drive in comparison with the old generation F1 cars. And lucky to be with a very competitive British/GERMAN team like Mercedes AMG F1.

 

[Amereto1]

Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Button, Raikkonen, Alonso, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Hill x2, Prost, Mansell, Senna, Lauda, Stewart, have all won championships by being in the fastest car for that year, F1 has always been that way and always will, it's the nature of the sport, it's the whole point of the sport!, to build the fastest race car possible, the complaints I hear about Mercedes, is the same complaints I heard about Red Bull, which happen to be the same complaints I heard about Ferrari. Last years Williams is an extremely fine piece of technology, it's just unfortunate that 9 other groups of people managed to do it a lot better, you would probably have to go back to maybe someone like Keke Rosberg (only won 1 race) to find someone who won a championship outside of a dominant car or maybe top 2 on the grid, where reliability was an equal if not more important factor than speed.
Russell proved nothing we didn't already know about the car, although I would have liked to have seen him on a track that was a bit more than point and squirt. But what separates the elite from the best is the anguish Rosberg had to endure, what Button spoke about being the hardest, what brought Senna and Prost to clash so many times, the mentality to compete and perform and most importantly deliver when it absolutely matters the most. That is what separates the talent. I admire so many sports men and women who got the top of their field, not by always standing on that top step, not by how easy they make everything look, but by the dedication and hard work they've put in over the years to make it appear they could do this thing here blindfolded.
Could I see Russell winning races?, sure, could I see Russell competing mentally with Hamilton over 21 races, I doubt it, I don't even think Leclerc is at that stage yet, even a seasoned pro like Vettel struggled, Max is definitely ready for that battle but just needs the car,
Would I call Hamilton the GOAT, probably a bit to early to tell, If we're talking motorsports his outside interests will have no bearing on my decision, if we're talking motorsports then those TT riders get way more respect than any other in this genre (I often wonder how the hell they manage to sit on those bikes with niagaras that big), and if we're talking motorsports, for me John Surtees achieved something that will probably never be repeated, the only man to have been world champion on both 2 wheels as well as 4, a true legend, a true gent, now that's a GOAT.

 

[leclettico]

Maybe, another trapper-rapper singer.

 

[nzl2003]

He has never win in an losing Car. Senna, Alonso, Schumacher, Lauda, Vettel and many other Drivers have this...

 

[Razorsedge202]

He has fantastic ability to keep himself at the front every single event.
When he makes a mistake or encounters reliability issues...inevitably, so do his rivals.
Really respect his achievements.

For me the GOAT is Schumacher. He fought quality rivals through out his career.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

First I am German so maybe not fair enough .Loius is a very very good driver enormus talent no questons about that, but Michael had the complete package .
His talent was no so high like Louise . Michael was living formular 1 every minute in his life . He was training his body ,he understands the physiks of a car and he was reading telemetrie data when other dirver relaxing .He was a manager and he can analyse whats wrong (like Lauda) and he was a big teamplayer .Not he won the race it was the Team and he had good privat relation to his engineers and mechanics

He was also a massive cheat. No one who was 'the best' should need to resort to cheating in order to win. I have absolutely no respect for him, and never will.

 

[sergheo]

The fact that Hamilton is constantly compared to Schumacher infuriates most of all. He never "stood next to him." This is evidenced even by the fact that having already so many titles and modern media opportunities, he never came close to Schumacher in popularity, and now he even began to move away. Even ten titles will not help him, because "everything is wrong and everything is wrong."

 

[Eck Simpson]

First off, I wish I could gather the where with all, to read all of this. So probably, I'm repeating someone. Great minds think alike or fools seldom differ...

Two words, then I'll explain.. don't worry, I'll keep it short.

George Russell...

Either, he's far better than Louis, got in a car for the first time at a race weekend and trounced the opposition, even the full time driver/teammate.
Or, any trained monkey could take that car and trounce the opposition. Either way, it prevents Louis from being seen as a GOAT candidate.

In one of those (who knows if its true) "news" columns, its rumoured that Louis is stipulating a no George Russell clause in his contract...

 

[fatal4you]

First off, I wish I could gather the where with all, to read all of this. So probably, I'm repeating someone. Great minds think alike or fools seldom differ...

Two words, then I'll explain.. don't worry, I'll keep it short.

George Russell...

Either, he's far better than Louis, got in a car for the first time at a race weekend and trounced the opposition, even the full time driver/teammate.
Or, any trained monkey could take that car and trounce the opposition. Either way, it prevents Louis from being seen as a GOAT candidate.

In one of those (who knows if its true) "news" columns, its rumoured that Louis is stipulating a no George Russell clause in his contract...

 

[Jim Layee]

I've seen better but the right man in the right place is a major part of any drivers success.

 

[VERT]

Mercedes is.... Ham is not. In the highest international level we watch amateur karting, where six persons go first time, and someone 2 years experienced beat them all by 2 sec from lap. Can we really belive in F1 on the grid everyone is diletant?

 

[Jim Layee]

=

edit;

What fans or commentators think is irrelevant

Ricky Carmichael was given the GOAT moniker by his competitors, unanimously, go ask anyone of them including Stewart and Dungey

When that happens to a car driver get back to me

I was watching AMA when RC started his top flight career and saw him improve again and again, I've never seen dominance like that in any motorsport.

 

[eg01st]

 

[fatal4you]

Vettel everytime he meets another F1 driver:

 

[nepal roade]

The whole concept of a Greatest of All Time is so utterly infantile.
For a start we haven't yet had All Time in case you didn't notice. This is the pathetic rubbish fostered by corporations for an activity that represents nothing of the real world except privilege. In my opinion it represents the worst in human activity, it being the circus know as F1 in the modern era.