The Lewis Hamilton trait that only helps fuel his critics

The stunning drive to victory that helped Lewis Hamilton clinch his seventh world title in Turkey last weekend was out of the top drawer.

On an afternoon that had started with few considering Hamilton as a contender for victory - while even fewer did when he found himself a pit-stop behind early race leader Lance Stroll - the Briton showed all his driving brilliance and fantastic tyre management skills to pull off a memorable 94th win. As Sebastian Vettel boldly declared after the race. "It wasn't his to win, but he won it."

PLUS: How Hamilton's critical changes decided a Turkish GP "that wasn't his race to win"

Yet the more Hamilton is able to pull off these great feats, and the more he pushes himself and his team to excel, the more it seems to act as ammunition for his critics who claim he only wins because he has the best car.

Certainly there is no argument that the scale of Hamilton's success in recent years, in becoming (statistically at least) the greatest driver in F1 history, has been aided by the quality of machinery he has had underneath him. The era of dominance that Mercedes has enjoyed in the turbo hybrid era is unprecedented, and there is no arguing that he would not have achieved anything near what he has done were he lumbered with a back of the grid car.

But it is wrong to separate completely the role that Hamilton has played in the march of Mercedes, from that of his team. The best drivers often end up in the best cars for a reason and together they help create an unstoppable force.

Were Hamilton simply a robot in the best car, having little contribution to rolling out the wins, then over recent years you would expect the win and titles tally to be much more evenly shared out between him and his team-mates. Instead, the only season he lost out was 2016, when Nico Rosberg pipped him by five points to the crown. Let's not forget that Hamilton lost 25 points in Malaysia that year when his engine went bang...

Many - including Max Verstappen - suggest that most of the current grid could probably win races with Mercedes. But, as Carlos Sainz Jr quite rightly points out, there are very few drivers who would be able to take on and beat Hamilton if they did have that car underneath them.

"I agree with Max that 90% of the grid would win races with the Mercedes, would get the pole positions with a Mercedes," said Sainz. "But I also tell you that if you put that half of the grid against Hamilton at Mercedes, 90% would not beat Hamilton at Mercedes.

"As team-mates, with that car, very few people would be able to beat Hamilton during a 20-race season. But if you remove Hamilton off the grid, any of the current F1 drivers would win with the Mercedes. That describes a lot what happens with current F1. But also that Hamilton, even if he has the best car, is one of the best or the best for a long time."

PLUS: 10 moments that decided the 2020 F1 title

While it is hard to completely separate the driver role from the team role in success, what does sometimes happen is that the narrative of a drivers' victories impacts on the perception of their individual contribution.

Taking the crown in the final round of the world championship can bring with it the view that the title was more skilful and hard earned, than the driver who did the work much better to wrap it up early

Like many sporting disciplines, F1 thrives in chasing the 'peak end effect'. It wants races to play out so that the decisive moments come not at the start nor mid-race, but that everything builds up to a culmination and peaks right at the end. When we think back to some of the most memorable grands prix of all time, like Japan 2005, they are races that played out with the result being decided only in the final moments.

The same can be true of world championship titles too. If we recall some of the best seasons, they are when things were decided right at the end. Think of Hamilton getting past Timo Glock just before the final corner of Brazil 2008 to snatch the title from Felipe Massa's grasp...

Such peak end effect is perfect for making memories stand out, but it can also have an impact on the perception of the job drivers have done in those moments. It is all too easy to judge that a last-minute victory is somehow more skilful or brilliant than a race win that was secured at the first corner.

But is it really fair to suggest that a driver who does a sensational job from pole position, drives head and shoulders above the rest to pull clear at one second per lap, has done a worse job than one who has made heavy weather of the afternoon and only pulls off the win in the final 100 metres?

That perception crosses over to titles too. Taking the crown in the final round of the world championship can bring with it the view that the title was more skilful and hard earned, than the driver who did the work much better to wrap it up early. By the same token, finishing a title long before the season is over, and being so dominant in what you have done, actually only serves to minimise the role that the driver has contributed to that success.

As Hamilton has served to lift his game in 2020 - both in qualifying and races - so too he's actually made it look easy. Earlier this week, this writer discussed the role of the driver with former F1 technical chief Paddy Lowe, who worked with Hamilton during titles successes at McLaren and Mercedes. He's clear that it's all too easy for a dominant driver's input to be ignored and points out that what is never appreciated is just how simple it is for drivers to blow it.

"You must never take for granted the perfection of a driver," says Lowe. "And this is why I was constantly saying in the early hybrid era [at Mercedes], when we were setting records for race wins in a season, that we had to really give credit to Lewis and Nico, at that time, for that sort of perfection.

"It is so easily missed when you just see the pace of a car and then think, 'Oh, well, the success is automatic'. It absolutely isn't. Every lap, every corner, every moment in a weekend, you can stumble. Even in practice, you can stumble, and create a penalty.

"There are so many man traps out there, in terms of what it takes to just put a race weekend together, and to get that across both sides of the garage. It's just incredibly difficult to put a race weekend together and not make an error.

"I used to track these things very carefully because when you lose points, that's effectively a loss on a quality metric, and then you want to understand why was that. If it's down to the driver, then it is allocated in that direction. If it was down to some part of the car, you go there and then you collect this data together in order to make plans how to improve.

"In the period that I was there, the amount of loss that one could allocate to a driver error of some type was just ridiculously small. And that is just such a huge credit to the two drivers that we had at that time.

"You've only got to look at the race in Turkey. And it's all there. You know, I'm not gonna name names, but so many drivers that made simple forgiveable mistakes, but still mistakes, and then you throw away the race win or the podium."

PLUS: Was Leclerc too hard on himself after his late Turkish GP mistake?

And therein lies the difficulty in fully appreciating just what Hamilton has been able to do. The better Hamilton gets, the more he digs deep, the more he can unlock from the tyres, and the more he can unleash his qualifying performance and lead on strategy, the more it looks so effortless and easy.

So by becoming a better driver and getting close to perfection, the more it fuels the sceptics who says it is all down to the car. But there is no simpler truth than being the best driver in the best car is not the easiest job in the world. And afternoons like Turkey should put beyond all doubt just how big an input does come from the cockpit.