Why Hamilton’s legacy already outweighs Schumacher’s

When Lewis Hamilton sealed his sixth world drivers' championship at last year's United States Grand Prix, he was asked what he thought about the prospect of equalling Michael Schumacher's all-time record of seven. "It is all about how you position your thought process," Hamilton said. "I have always said reaching Michael's [tally] was never a target for me. I am not really one to think of records and those kinds of things.

"I definitely thought getting anywhere near Michael was so far-fetched. And I remember having my one [championship] for a long period of time, then getting a second one. It was so far away and now it seems so close, yet it is so far away that I still can't really even comprehend.

"The challenges that we'll face in these coming months, the next season - you look at these other teams that have really been putting in some astonishing performances in the second half of the season. It's going to take another load of incredible performance and work from myself and all the people who are around me and I really don't want to have to think about it right now."

At the time of writing, before the start of 2020 pre-season testing, Hamilton had not been asked about the prospect again, but when he is, his answer will doubtless be a variation of the same.

He will talk about wanting to take one race at a time, the strength of his opposition, how long the season is, and how much effort it is going to take to win the championship again. All of which will be true. And yet, of course, he starts the season as favourite to achieve exactly that.

Hamilton and Mercedes have so dominated the hybrid era of F1 since 2014 that he has been winning an average of 10 races a year. If Hamilton keeps up that scoring rate, he will not only equal Schumacher's seven titles this year, but will become the most successful driver in
F1 history, by also surpassing the German's record of 91 wins. Lewis starts the year with 84.

This is monumental stuff, deserving of contemplation and reflection. Two men.
Two careers. Similar results achieved in a very different way, but with a pattern that contains remarkable similarities.

Both made an instant impact when they made their debuts in their early 20s: Schumacher by out-qualifying his Jordan team-mate Andrea de Cesaris on his debut at Spa aged 22; Hamilton by passing his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso around the outside of the first corner in his first race in Melbourne, aged 21.

Both won a championship early: Hamilton after two full seasons; Schumacher after three. And both then suffered a fallow period before hitting their stride with one dominant team.

But there the similarities end. Schumacher won two titles before his career stalled; Hamilton just one. Schumacher moving teams precipitated his title-free period; Hamilton made his switch after suffering it for too long.

Schumacher was intimately involved in building up the team with which he ultimately dominated; Hamilton parachuted in just a year before his started, and when the building blocks were already laid, but has certainly been influential in maintaining Mercedes' thirst for continued success.

They are both great talents, with massive natural speed, but quite different drivers in 
quite different situations.

Schumacher almost from the start, had the number-one status in his teams bestowed
upon him. Hamilton has almost never had it. He had to establish his dominance, and the few times the team stepped in to his advantage, it was nearly always when the position had already been earned.

And the biggest difference of all: Honour. Throughout his career, in moments of extreme pressure, Schumacher hit below the belt. Yet Hamilton has built a reputation as a tough but scrupulously fair racer, who would never resort to underhand tactics.

Above all, though, they are united by their ability, their completeness, the immediacy with which they announced themselves as something special, and their impact on F1 as a sport.

In Schumacher's case, within a race, he had been prised from the grasp of Jordan and deposited at Benetton, with help from F1's impresario Bernie Ecclestone. Hamilton's talent convinced McLaren, who had nurtured him from an early age, that it was the right thing to do to put him in alongside Alonso, who arrived there having beaten Schumacher and Ferrari.

But even McLaren did not expect Hamilton to make the impact he did. Team principal Ron Dennis thought Alonso would emerge as the natural team leader while Hamilton was finding his way. But the force of Hamilton's natural ability immediately destabilised the team and
 led to the most seismic season in its history, in which all parties behaved in ways they would, in hindsight, probably regret.

After passing Alonso in the first race of the season, Hamilton outqualified him for the
 first time in the third, was leading the championship by the fourth, and took his maiden win in the sixth, a performance of such dominance in Canada that it seemed to affect Alonso, who made a series of errors in that race and finished a chastened seventh.

By then, it was obvious Formula 1 was witnessing the birth of a special talent, and the Italian media had taken to calling Hamilton 'Il Fenomeno' - the phenomenon.

Hamilton and Alonso were engaged in an epic scrap, and by any measure it was almost impossible to separate them. Hamilton outqualified Alonso more often than not, but Alonso was marginally faster on average qualifying laptime and ahead more often than not when both cars finished the race.

They took four wins each, and ended the year with the same number of points, Hamilton classified ahead only on results count back - he had more second places.

It was undoubtedly the best season by a rookie in F1 history and, despite the closeness of the battle, it should have ended with Hamilton as world champion. But errors by team and driver in China, where the title was his for the taking, opened the door for Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

After rows through the summer, and the spy-gate hearing, for which McLaren was fined $100m and thrown out of the constructors' championship for possessing Ferrari technical information, McLaren's relationship with Alonso was in tatters and it was obvious 
he would be leaving at the end of the year. 
In Shanghai, McLaren allowed the unnecessary ambition of ensuring Hamilton finished ahead of Alonso to distract it.

Had Hamilton finished third, behind Raikkonen and Alonso, he would have been champion. But McLaren left him out too long on worn intermediate tyres in drying conditions. The rubber was down to the canvas by the time he was summoned in, and he lost the car in the pit lane, sliding agonisingly into a gravel trap, where he became stuck.

Raikkonen won the race and then, when Ferrari held team-mate Felipe Massa in the pits at the finale in Brazil just long enough for the Finn to pass him for the lead, and Hamilton struggled to seventh after a problem-afflicted race, Raikkonen snatched the title from McLaren's grasp. Hamilton's first championship would have to wait for another year. It was not as good a season as he had driven in 2007 - there were too many errors - but when Hamilton famously passed Timo Glock's Toyota at the last corner of the last lap at Interlagos, while Ferrari and Felipe Massa celebrated a title they believed to be theirs, few would have said Lewis didn't deserve it.

At that time, it seemed impossible that Hamilton would have to wait another six years to win again, such an impression had he made. But McLaren's 2009 car was a dog - although Hamilton still managed to win two races with it after a mid-season upgrade. And from 2010 McLaren was always there or thereabouts but could rarely match the pace of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who romped to four titles in a row as Hamilton watched through gritted teeth.

Even Hamilton's reputation as the fastest driver in F1 was being undermined by Vettel's blizzard of poles, and there were dark periods and controversies. 'Lie-gate' in 2009, when Lewis had to apologise for misleading stewards in Australia, on the instruction of team manager Dave Ryan, who lost his job. And then the 'Ali G' storm in Monaco 2011, when Hamilton referenced Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof character in an ill-advised attempt at a joke after the race and seemed to suggest the number of penalties he was receiving was down to racism.

As a whole, 2011 was a difficult year for Hamilton. His break-up with girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger hit him hard. He was involved in a number of incidents. And through these
four years the frustration in Hamilton grew. 
He thought he knew he was better than Vettel, so it hurt watching the German win all those races. At the same time, Hamilton's relationship with Dennis deteriorated, and by the summer of 2012 was in a really bad place.

Mercedes grasped the opportunity. Team boss Ross Brawn and non-executive director Niki Lauda worked on Hamilton to convince him that they were in good shape for the forthcoming hybrid era and he should join them.

By the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis was almost completely convinced. He had a final meeting with Lauda, who made the pitch one more time. Then, when Hamilton was dominating the race, his gearbox failed (the latest in a series of reliability issues for McLaren that year) and handed victory to - you guessed it - Vettel.

After the race, Hamilton flew to Thailand to clear his head, and it was there he made the decision that would change his life. "To stay and do the easier thing didn't really suit me," he said. "I wanted something different and the challenge to make a car that isn't competitive into a winner. That is just part of growing up. It's my last step of independence, I guess. It wasn't about Ross. It wasn't about Niki. It was about Mercedes, a team which has not been that successful over the past couple of years.

"I know some of the greats have gone from a great car to not such a great car and have helped to develop a winning team. Michael, for instance, went from being a world champion to Ferrari. We haven't really got any other driver in Formula 1 who is known for that. I hope that one day someone can say that about me."

And so it has come to pass. A decision partly based on the experience of Schumacher has indeed led Hamilton to the verge of matching and potentially surpassing his achievements.

But their paths were quite different. By the time he left Benetton at the end of 1995, Schumacher was a two-time champion. The first came in circumstances as controversial as any title has ever been won in F1.

Benetton escaped punishment despite illegal driver aids being found in the car's software, and again for tampering with a refuelling rig and causing a pit fire. Schumacher was banned for two races for ignoring the black flag at Silverstone, and was disqualified from victory
 in Belgium because his car's underfloor plank was found to be too thin.

At the season climax in Adelaide, Schumacher was a point ahead of Williams driver Damon Hill. Schumacher led, but ran wide and clouted a wall, and as Hill tried to pass him at the next corner, Schumacher turned in on him. Both were out, and the title was Schumacher's.

He won his second title in a more convincing fashion, following Benetton's switch from Ford to the same Renault engines as Williams. But the traumas of 1994 had given him an out - he used the claim that Benetton's behaviour in 1994 had damaged his reputation as a reason to leave, and he signed for Ferrari for 1996.

At the time, Ferrari was seeking an end to a long and painful drought - its last drivers' title was in 1979, its last constructors' in 1982.

Luca di Montezemolo, sporting director during Niki Lauda's first championship year in 1975, was installed as president in 1991. Jean Todt arrived in 1993 as team boss. Getting the best driver was next on the list, and the final two building blocks were Schumacher bringing his technical chiefs from Benetton with him - technical director Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne.

Together, Schumacher, Todt, Brawn and Byrne set about transforming Maranello. After two near misses, including the controversy of 1997, when Schumacher again tried to take out
a rival in a championship decider (and this time failed), and a broken leg in 1999, the drought finally ended in 2000.

That championship opened the floodgates, as the biggest budget, the best driver, unlimited testing on Ferrari's own tracks and bespoke Bridgestone tyres came together to create what was, until Mercedes came along, the most effective winning machine in Formula 1 history.

Schumacher's move to Ferrari was a gamble, but one with weighted odds - he knew Brawn and Byrne would follow, and he reckoned as long as he was patient, it would work out.

For Hamilton, it was much more of a leap of faith. Mercedes had struggled since taking over Brawn at the end of 2009, and while there were rumours it would be well placed for the hybrid era, there was no way of being sure.

"Everyone was very concerned he was maybe going to a backwater, and just leaving home 
for the sake of it," Damon Hill says, "but he did the right thing.

"That astuteness is part of his talent and make-up as a grand prix driver. The great drivers, they won a lot because they made sure they knew the game and put themselves in 
the right place.

"There was a mixture of ingredients that made him come to that conclusion. He felt he was stifled a little bit, he wasn't able to get the freedom he needed. And he created the circumstances with the opportunity of going to Mercedes of being able to dictate terms, and he couldn't have done that if he wasn't the best driver.

"The best driver, the teams will come to him, and he will say: 'OK, I'm coming but I want these conditions to perform to my best.' And Lewis's conditions were less promotional work, more time to himself to go off and do the things he does around the world.

"At times, it looked like he was a little bit distracted, and maybe he had a bit too much jet lag, because there were some races when you thought: 'Well, hang on, where's Lewis gone?' And he has to admit that was true. Sometimes he went missing and maybe his off-track lifestyle was contributing to that.

"When you look now at what he's done, you'd have to say he has provided himself with the happiness and contentment in his other life that you need in order to be able to cope with this intense experience of being an F1 driver.

"He has taken the pressure off himself by having these other things he does and then he can turn up, jump in and win. So there's a smartness. To know yourself that well and to create the right conditions is part of the job of a sportsman, and Lewis has done that."

Hamilton left McLaren with 21 victories to his name. He has added another 63 since. Really, Hamilton should already have his seventh title and be gunning this year for number eight. The missing year was 2016, when his team-mate Nico Rosberg took it. Hamilton did not help himself with a few bad starts, and a wobbly weekend in Japan, but ultimately it was their skewed reliability records, with Hamilton disproportionately affected, which decided it, and even then Rosberg still only just beat Hamilton.

Hamilton has had the machinery, but he has also outclassed his team-mates, and humiliated Vettel when the German ought to have won the title with Ferrari in 2017 and 2018.

What makes him so good? Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says: "He drives cars bloody, bloody fast. It's where talent meets big push for self-improvement all the time and that combination makes him stand out in his generation."

Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell adds: "His natural feel for where the grip is and his intuitive gut feeling for what is a good move and what's a crazy move. His sportsmanship, his self-critique, his open but friendly critique of everyone around him as well, and that drive and demand for continuous improvement is infectious across the whole team."

Mercedes technical director James Allison has worked with Schumacher, Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. Allison told the BBC in 2018 that he thought Hamilton was "the quickest" of the four.

He added: "Michael has the greatest number of championships and until that is broken he has the record. But if I were to say out of the amazingly good drivers I have been lucky enough to work with across my career, if they all had to be in a super-team fighting it out every year, my guess - and it's only a guess - is that Lewis would end up on top. Maybe not every season, but if they kept coming back every year to do battle in some sort of Valhalla-type confrontation, more often than not it would be Lewis wearing the crown at the end of the year."

The identity of the greatest driver in F1 history always will be a matter of personal opinion. But this could be the year Hamilton, statistically at least, moves his name to the top of the pile.

Back in Austin, the man himself said: "I don't want to build up the idea of trying to get to seven. I've got to enjoy right now. Tomorrow is not a given. We should all try to make sure you enjoy each day because one day you're here and one day you're not.

"I am not trying to think about the end of next year or 2021. I believe I have the ability
 to continue to grow and to do more with this team and within F1. That would be the target but time will tell."