Reinvented Hamilton can break all F1 records

After winning his fourth Formula 1 world championship, his third in four years, Lewis Hamilton confirmed himself as statistically the greatest British racing driver of them all. That fourth crown places him ahead of revered compatriots such as Jim Clark and Sir Jackie Stewart, and he had already long since cleared James Hunt and Nigel Mansell's single titles.

There will always be disputes over which great is greater, since it is so difficult to compare rigorously across eras. But there is no arguing against raw statistics - and it is here where Hamilton shines so brightly.

His tally of 62 grand prix victories is double that of the next best Briton - Mansell. He holds the all-time record for pole positions on 72, three clear of Michael Schumacher. Clark is the second-best-placed Briton on 33.

Hamilton's fourth world title moves him into a realm that features only Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and his defeated 2017 title rival Sebastian Vettel. That is exalted company. They are giants of motorsport; and beyond being the best of British, Hamilton can now count himself among that elite. It just highlights the scale of what he has achieved.

Careers are defined by the decisions people take. Hamilton has had big calls to make. Both times he got it right.

When looking for a way into F1, Hamilton chose to focus his efforts on getting in with McLaren. Cue the well-known story of a young Hamilton introducing himself to then team boss Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards and telling him he would race one of his cars one day.

It proved inspired. Hamilton almost won the title in his first F1 season in 2007, then achieved the feat the following year.

When it became clear change was needed, having spent his whole career with the McLaren family, Hamilton took a chance on Mercedes, which at the time had been struggling since returning to F1.

He made the final call on that move when his McLaren's gearbox failed while leading the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix. There was surprise when the news broke.

Hamilton has had big calls to make. Both times he got it right

Hamilton may well have questioned that decision when McLaren won the final race of the season in 2012 - but he certainly doesn't anymore.

McLaren hasn't won a grand prix since. Mercedes has won 65, of which Hamilton has claimed 41. Mercedes has dominated the V6 turbo hybrid era and maintained that dominance into a second regulation change, following the aerodynamic overhaul for 2017. After triumphing this year, he is favourite to make it five next year.

The pressure on Hamilton to succeed has been immense since the age of 10, when McLaren started supporting him. He delivered on expectation, winning the Formula Renault UK title, the Formula 3 Euro Series crown and the GP2 championship.

Hamilton missed out on the F1 title at his first attempt, but what he achieved in that first season in 2007 was still astonishing. He scored podiums in the first nine races, including two wins, and led the title race for most of the season. His pass around the outside of then team-mate Fernando Alonso at the first corner of his first grand prix in Australia was an impressive statement of intent.

He won the championship the following year, albeit fortuitously in a crazy Brazilian GP finale, but then struggled for the next five seasons to replicate that form.

Much of that was down to the machinery, but there was also an element of too much success, too soon. It took Hamilton some time to recover, but his move to Mercedes, leaving his childhood education behind at McLaren to graduate to high school, changed everything and provided the foundation on which to build the next stage of his career.

In years gone by, there have been blips, moments when he has not quite performed. But that hasn't happened this year. He lost the mental battle with Nico Rosberg last year, but he has learned from that and come back stronger. There have been no big mistakes and no split-second misjudgements.

This year he has ironed out the creases, sharpened the focus. Most drivers say they want to push the limits, but few have the range of Hamilton and even fewer come close to reaching it. He has not allowed himself to get distracted from the job in hand. He has looked relaxed. Calm. Focused. This year has undoubtedly been his finest.

Mercedes has had the outright fastest car this year, but it wasn't the best at every circuit. It was also a bit of a "diva", in the words of Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff, a real challenge to drive and set up. That put Hamilton on the back foot and meant he trailed Vettel by 19 points heading into the summer break.

But Hamilton is at his most dangerous in adversity. He refuses to be beaten. Every time he gets knocked down, he gets back up again, reinventing himself in the process. Each new model is a better version of the last.

All year long he has been working tirelessly to find a way to minimise weaknesses. And when the season resumed at Spa, he unleashed a new-spec Hamilton. From the off, there were no signs of any bugs. He won five out of the next six races. In the other, he finished second. In at least one, possibly two, he did not have the car to win - but win he did.

The result was a 66-point lead with only 75 available for the final three races. Granted, Ferrari and Vettel helped him out by imploding, but Hamilton was already building momentum in the ruthlessly efficient way that the greats do.

He has also thrived in a new status at Mercedes. Last Sunday, he spoke about how this season he had been in a position to "really lead the team" and "help drive, motivate and direct the car exactly where I want it to go in its development". That is yet another weapon in an arsenal that is becoming ever more potent.

At 32, Hamilton is at a sweet spot in his driving career where he can marry experience with the fearlessness and ruthless speed that characterised him when he first entered F1. He has spoken about improving his consistency and pace over one lap, which has always been there but of late has been refined so that he can deliver on it more often.

Each new model of Hamilton is a better version of the last

Hamilton can do things with a racing car that most can only dream of. When the pressure is on, the fuel has been taken out and you have just one lap to perform, Hamilton makes it happen. That has never been more evident than this year. His qualifying laps at Silverstone, Monza and Sepang were among the best he's ever done.

In race trim, he has only got better. Of his nine wins, Britain and Italy were sensational while he was brilliant in snatching victory from Vettel in Spain. His ability to dominate a weekend has been honed, as evinced most recently in the United States, where he was untouchable. And when it rains, his legend only gets stronger. Victories at Fuji in 2007 and Silverstone in '08 had long since established that.

He has achieved some of those wins with a dominant car, as has been the case in the last four years, but also with a merely good car - in 2010 or '12 - and with a bad car, as in 2009 and '11. Not every champion can say that.

The challenge now is to maintain that drive and motivation, but Hamilton seems to have that in abundance. He is thriving on Vettel's return to championship-contending status and to Max Verstappen's rise. He knows beating drivers of that quality in the coming years will only make victory all the sweeter.

"I want to be better next year," said Hamilton. "The challenge is going to be even bigger from Ferrari and Red Bull.

"Formula 1 doesn't sleep. It doesn't stand still. There is always someone there waiting to take my position. I've got Max sitting there waiting to take it. I've got to raise the game another level in order to stay ahead of him and that motivates me. There's my motivation already for next year."

His current Mercedes deal expires at the end of next season, but extending his stay is a mere formality now. The worrying thing for his rivals is an overwhelming feeling that the best is still yet to come.

Hamilton is also not afraid to do things differently. While most drivers have a personal fitness trainer, Hamilton doesn't. Instead he has found the motivation to push himself to new levels.

He has been susceptible to external factors impacting upon his racing. His split from his father on the management front, to join Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment company in 2011, is an example.

But with age has come experience and he is successfully combining his racing with building a life outside F1, in areas such as fashion, music and movies. The result is that he has become the face of F1, taking motorsport to a new audience across the globe in the way Usain Bolt has for athletics.

The greatest athletes are those who remind us that sport isn't the be all and end all. And they try to let the public in to experience it with them. Hamilton has the fortune of social media (a platform only drivers of this era have had) with which to engage with fans. He does not have to engage - many drivers, including Vettel, do not - but he does.

You often see Hamilton filming team celebrations, doing Facebook Lives during downtime, Instagramming his life away from the track. He goes above and beyond to share his success and takes his role model status seriously. He transcends F1.

He may divide opinion because he has strong views and is not afraid to express them. But the greats generally do. And it's often not until after their careers that they are remembered more fondly.

"Being thought of as a legend doesn't resonate with me yet," Hamilton said earlier this year. "Maybe it will when I retire and time has gone by."

Given Hamilton's current rate of performance, Schumacher's seven championships and record of 91 wins is suddenly not looking insurmountable after all. That alone is proof that Hamilton is one of the great F1 drivers. And if he continues on this trajectory, it's a question of when - not if - that last sentence will be upgraded to 'Hamilton is the greatest F1 driver of them all'.