Lewis Hamilton's racecraft 'unparalleled' among F1 greats says Lowe

Now chief technical officer at Williams, Lowe was engineering director and then technical director at McLaren during Hamilton's time there and then joined Hamilton at Mercedes in the role of executive director (technical) from mid-2013 to the start of this season.

Though Lowe was wary of stating where Hamilton ranked among F1 greats now that he had equalled Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as a four-time champion, he suggested Hamilton's style would ensure he was among fans' all-time favourites.

"It is not only that Lewis produces results," Lowe explained.

"Before, even when he only got one world championship, he was still an incredibly exciting driver for the sport - arguably the most popular driver for the fanbase.

"The style with which he qualifies and races, it is always very exciting.

"His racecraft is probably unparalleled. It would have been great to see him race against the likes of [Ayrton] Senna.

"Michael [Schumacher] achieved fantastic records but his racecraft was not one of his greatest strengths, for example.

"Why people love Lewis is they love the way he races."

Lowe believes Hamilton put together a better campaign in 2017 than ever before.

"From the outside it looked to me like his best season ever," said Lowe.

"He drove really well every race, whether a good day or bad day, and he was always in there getting the points.

"He is a really, really worthy champion.

"He passed a number of waypoints on records this year, and with a fourth championship he is not done yet: he is one of the sport's all-time greats."

Lowe added that it was not Hamilton's speed that had been so impressive, but that he had been so consistent in bringing the best out of himself.

"Lewis has been much more consistent - not that he was inconsistent before - but he has shown his highest level of consistency this year of all the years he has been driving in the sport," he said.

"That has paid dividends to him to take this championship."

When asked if a better atmosphere inside Mercedes following the departure of Nico Rosberg had helped, Lowe said: "I don't want to read into his mind - all I know is that he lost the championship last year and that must have been quite annoying.

"So he probably took that on board and decided to learn from it."