Lewis Hamilton: The Best Ever?

[Slowdive]

I hate to vote yes. He's absolutely the best at driving the fastest car out there.

 

[Nick Gregory]

 

[InsaneOzzie]

If he was with a different team he wouldn't be getting these accolades, dominating via your team having the BIGGEST budget & fastest car, doesn't automatically make you the best ever.
Same for Schumacher, he dominated due to Ferrari being the fastest and best in that period, Vettel dominated due to RB having the best car at the time. He's talented no doubt, but so are most F1 drivers they just don't drive the most developed & fastest car. A good example is Bottas, he is able to take it to Lewis and win races, he obviously had the talent just needed the car beneath him to do it.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

ERROR ERROR please delete.

 

[BSH]

He's certainly making a case for the best of his era...no question about it (i.e over the past 10 years)

Best ever? I think we need to stop judging that way and define by era relative to the competition and technology available at that give period.

Unfortunately that won't happen. So the answer is no, Senna is for reasons we won't get into here. Lewis is top 5 all time on his way to top 3. Wouldn't be saying this last year.
This year however, he seems to be in a completely different League mentally. The maturity and experience are at peak harmony and you can see it on display every single race. Vettle however seems to be falling apart.

This is coming from someone who is not a Lewis Hamilton fan. But his performances this year can not be ignored.

 

[Deleted member 113561]

A good example is Bottas, he is able to take it to Lewis and win races, he obviously had the talent just needed the car beneath him to do it.

A good driver would also show this kinda performance in a not top car. And that is what Hamilton did between 2009 - 2013 - though in all fairness, he never had a midfield car.

 

[tedd]

I suppose winning 4 titles in 5 years is easy when your car is the most dominant on the grid. If his talent had really been that overpowering he'd have won titles between 2009-13 too... Yes. He has talent, but he's had a car that's nigh on unstoppable since 2014. Only falling out with mechanics stopped him in 2016.

people were saying the same thing about Seb once upon a time ago. now what. so I guess having the best car helps. what if Danny Rec or Max was in Botas place???

 

[bgil66]

Toto smoking some weird stuff that is clouding his judgement, the best ever is clearly Jackie Stewart

 

[Jason Mullin]

Since we're all just drinking beers and throwing around opinions...
Have any of you seen Jeremy Clarkson drift an SLS?
My vote goes to the Orangutan.

 

[Crash T Dummy]

Lewis Hamilton is clearly the best driver of his generation.
I think it is hard to make comparisons between drivers from different generations, the technology and racing conditions are so vastly different.

 

[takfar]

He may well be. How would we know? Hasn't been tested against other greats, or overcome insurmountable odds, so we can't call him that. He's a damn good pilot on a damn good car, that's for sure.

 

[AngryWolfCorey]

If modern drivers can do a few races, much less entire seasons without all the telemetric data or what amounts to lap-wide spotters b/c of all the tv cameras than maybe I'll consider the likes of Hamilton in the best ever category. But in an era when the cars rarely break down, there's mountains of computer data to help, not for me. Everybody who came after the mid-90s are notched down for me no matter how good they are b/c things got sanitized, over policed, and the computers began to take out all the guess work & even crap cars got at least fairly reliable following that period.

On pure talent of what I've seen in my life, Senna, Prost & Lauda are the best I've ever seen. And from how my dad used to talk about drivers you could add Stewart & Clark & maybe Andretti, since Mario drove & won in just about everything except rally cars.

 

[DKGORACE]

Best of era is one thing, G.O.A.T. is something that will never be done, from this day or yesterday...........Apple and Oranges as far as I'm concerned. The best driver in the best car at the time is the rule of thumb for me on this pole. The circumstances of the times.............rules, regulations..and manipulation of those rules.......top teams of any era is a question of the situation. Fangio, Stewart, Schumacher, any of the greats is just that... the greatest of THEIR time not of ALL time. Sorry if a bit off topic, but this goes on too often.

 

[Sansupa]

Honestly what a stupid question! Put them all in the same car and you might then get an answer. Didn't Senna prove just that in a BMW road car against a whole lot of f1 drivers?

 

[diggiddi]

Hamilton would have won his rookie year if not for the incident at Chinese GP, he beat his teammate Alonso 2x champ and one of the all time greats*(not my opinion) fair and square. Alonso even had to use dirty tricks against him (pit-box blocking incident) He only lost to Nico because of engine failures not because of Nico's skill. He's one of the greatest ever and if he passes Schumi( a driver known for dirty tricks), he is the greatest IMO.

 

[Boby Kim]

Whatever you all say, running the numbers he's the best period. "But if" has no room in facts. Neither does personal emotions.

 

[liby88]

give him the old insane turbo cars with manuel shifting and u will see him sitting in a corner crying like a baby

 

[William Hud]

wasn't Vettel the best as Red Bull dominates the F1 ?! ...or ...or ? what a useless thread...

 

[UMC 22]

Whatever you all say, running the numbers he's the best period. "But if" has no room in facts. Neither does personal emotions.

Not true. Just because a few numbers and stats are higher, it doesn't make him the "best" at all. Why? Did Senna and Schumacher drive 21 GPs every season? Nope, so it's not really surprising that a very, very good driver in a dominant car is breaking their records for wins and poll positions, is it?

Then there's the fact that whenever his car isn't dominant or when he can't get it working just to his liking, suddenly his performances drop off completely. Compare that to drivers like Senna and Alonso that have had some real dogs in their careers, and still managed to outclass drivers in far superior cars than theirs.

There are other things to like all the tech today that allows drivers to analyse everything in a way older greats were never able to, which is a massive advantage. We'd need to see drivers like Hamilton racing "pure" to see if they really have the instinct and raw talent that makes a divert truly great.

So the short answer is no, he's not the greatest of all time. Very, very good, maybe the best of his generation, but has never had to deal with the adversity that had made other greats truly shine.

 

[LeSunTzu]

Hamilton's performances "dropping off completely" are the product of your imagination. Between 2009 and 2013, when he did not have WC title capable cars, he collected poles and wins every season. Even during 2011 when his driving was very poor by his own standards, for reasons related to off-track issues.