Lewis Hamilton is coming to the end of his career and the inevitable skeletons in the closet will begin to emerge. The seven times world champion is the most statistically successful F1 driver of all time and his inherited victory in Spa last time out takes his win count to 105 together with 201 podiums.

In his rookie year Lewis faced the daunting prospect of newly crowned double world champion Fernando Alonso as his team mate. With the new kid on the block at McLaren pushing Alonso all the way, tensions developed in the team which culminated in Fernando sitting in the pit box during qualifying in Hungary to prevent Hamilton changes tyres and making a final run.

Believing Ron Dennis favoured the young British driver, Fernando left after just one season which had seen Kimi Raikkonen exploit the warring McLaren garage and claim the drivers title by just one point. Lewis and Fernando finished level one point behind the Ferrari driver.

 

 

 

Hamilton team mates vary

Lewis then had a relatively easy time of it with Heikki Kovalainen as his team mate for two seasons, winning the first of his F1 championships in 2008. Coming off the high of his adventures with Brawn GP and a world title, Jenson Button was up next across the garage from Hamilton.

Button proved to be a much bigger test for Lewis and became the first ever team mate to outscore him over the course of a season. Lewis famously posted on twitter the data from his and Jenson’s qualifying session in Belgium 2012, presumably as an explanation as to why Hamilton was an incredible 0.8 seconds slower than Button.

When asked about Lewis petulant behaviour, Button who claimed pole replied: “I think it’s done now,” Jenson noted of Hamilton who was down in P7. “I don’t think it’s for me to be angry with Lewis because it’s not a personal thing.”

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Lewis posts telemetry on twitter

“The bit about him losing 0.6 secs on the straights isn’t the bit that’s important to me because he should be gaining it back in the corners he’s got more downforce on. And I was 0.8 secs quicker in qualifying anyway.

“It’s more the information that we work so hard to keep secret and private, that was the thing I didn’t want to see on Twitter,” Button concluded.

Lewis was off to Mercedes the following season and his team mate was fellow boyhood racer Nico Rosberg. The closeness of their battle throughout the year made a number of F1 observers realise that Nico’s dominance of his previous partner Michael Schumacher was genuine.

Rosberg was a constant thorn in Hamilton’s side during their time together and come the all conquering Mercedes V6 Turbo Hybrid in 2014, the pair were fighting for championships. Three close battles for the championship culminated in Rosberg winning his first drivers title and then promptly announcing his retirement from the sport.

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Russell more than a match for Hamilton

Next up was Valtteri Bottas as Lewis’ team mate, something Hamilton was more than please with as he even tried to persuade Toto Wolff to retain the Finn for one more season as the decision to promote George Russell was being made.

From the off it appeared as though Valtteri knew his place and was never able to mount a serious championship challenge to his team mate. He played second fiddle happily winning ten races and rattling up 60 podiums as the Mercedes car continued to enjoy its dominance.

Yet Toto had suppressed the talent of Russell for long enough down at Williams and he was in danger of losing the rising star to another F1 team. As the new ground effect car design regulations came into effect in 2022, Russell joined Lewis at Mercedes.

George proved to be more than a match for Hamilton beating him easily in their first season together. The margin was even greater than when Button and Rosberg had bested Hamilton, with Lewis looking all at sea unable to get the feeling of the new breed of F1 car.

Hamilton retirement

 

 

 

Mr. Saturday returned

Hamilton fought back last year as Russell appeared to be living out his “Mr. Saturday” nick name but for all the wrong reasons. The Mercedes duo finished the qualifying head to head at 11-11 across the season, but Hamilton was dominant on Sunday’s finishing up ahead of Russell 15-6.

This season there’s been little between the two drivers and Russell may have been ahead of Hamilton but for an unfortunate disqualification and a retirement while in a good position to challenge for the win at Silverstone.

Russell has probably been the faster driver of the two over the fourteen races held this year and it could be due to his mastery of the telemetry and data according to a mechanic who worked with Hamilton.

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Hamilton ‘less mature’ with data and tech

Philip Brandle, a former engineer at Brackley, now claims Russell has the edge over Hamilton in this area as did Rosberg. To counter this Lewis has one of the finest ‘feels’ for an F1 car which makes him the most successful driver in F1 history.

“What sets Lewis apart is simply his incredible feel for the car,” Brandle told Motorsport-total.com “I would say that in terms of data and technology, he is perhaps not as mature as other drivers, such as Nico Rosberg or now perhaps George Russell.”

Lewis has been fortunate enough to work with race engineer Pete Bonnington/Bono for eleven years at Mercedes who has on the whole fed Lewis with the information he requires. This leaves Lewis less interested in the data traces given he knowns his engineer will give him all the pertinent information.

With Hamilton leaving for Ferrari next season, he hoped Bono would join him in Maranello. Yet Mercedes put their foot down refusing the request and Bono will now be paired with the exciting upstart that Hamilton was once, in the form of Kimi Antonelli.

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Ralf Schumacher leaks WhatsApp messages and calls his wife a liar

Last month Ralph Schumacher, brother of seven times Formula One world champion Michael revealed to the world that he was gay. Lewis Hamilton came out in support of his fellow racer in Hungary telling assembled media:

“Clearly he has not felt comfortable being able to say it in the past. It is definitely not a new thing.” Schumacher’s sexuality was known in the paddock during his F1 years (1997-2007) so it was somewhat of a surprise when in 2001 he became engaged to Cora-Caroline Brinkman a former model. They married later that year and had a son David just weeks after they tied the knot.

Following the announcement by Ralph on social media, Cora Schumacher opened up over her ex-husband’s coming out but suggested he’d always denied having feelings towards men… READ MORE