Hamilton’s finest F1 achievement yet?
Did you ever think that Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 wins tally of 91 would be matched? All records are there to be broken, of course, but Schuey’s (then) unprecedented period of domination with Ferrari, combined with longer seasons (and careers) than in the past did make the victory benchmark look like one of F1’s toughest.
When Schumacher took his final win in the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix he had 40 more than the driver in second (Alain Prost) and Fernando Alonso, the next-highest active driver, had only 14 wins.
Lewis Hamilton arrived the following year, just as Schumacher left (the first time). Although it was obvious from his first race in F1 that he was going to be one of the talents of his generation, his trials and tribulations at Mclaren meant it didn’t look like he would be challenging the record. Sebastian Vettel seemed set to at Red Bull.
But Hamilton’s switch to Mercedes and the arrival of the turbohybrid era heralded a period of sustained success that seems set to surpass Schumacher. It’s a remarkable achievement, one deserving of our traditional green cover for outstanding British achievement.
Kimi Raikkonen surpassed another milestone in Germany. The 2007 world champion made his 323rd F1 start, overtaking previous recordholder Rubens Barrichello. In next week’s issue we’ll catch up with the Finn to ask how he feels about F1 after nearly two decades – and pick out his best races with some of those that know him best.