Lewis Hamilton can beat Michael Schumacher’s Formula One records to become the most successful driver of all time, according to the German’s old foe Jacques Villeneuve.
The passing years have not mellowed the outspoken Canadian’s views on Schumacher, the man he beat to the 1997 world championship in controversial circumstances, and he has pulled no punches in claiming Hamilton is already a greater world champion.
“I would rate Lewis above Michael, by miles,” Villeneuve told Reuters at the U.S. Grand Prix where Hamilton stands on the brink of joining the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and Schumacher as the only men to win at least five world titles.
Schumacher won seven, two at Benetton and the rest with Ferrari, and retired with a record 91 wins. Hamilton has 71 victories going into Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Villeneuve said he could see Hamilton beating that win record, because there are now 21 races a year and the Briton was averaging 10 a season.
“The Mercedes era will be difficult to stop with these rules,” he said.
Villeneuve said Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since a 2013 skiing accident, would not even make his top five champions of all time.
He listed instead Brazilian Ayrton Senna, Frenchman Alain Prost, Hamilton, Austrian Niki Lauda and Britain’s Jackie Stewart — all winners of at least three titles each.
“There’s been too many negative stories. Too many question marks on how some races or championships were won. And being a great champion is more than just winning races,” said the 47-year-old, who won his title with Williams.
Hamilton, he said, was completely different.
“There’s very little negativity. You can like or not like the way he is in life but there’s nothing nasty or negative with it. There’s nothing nasty towards his opponents. There’s respect towards his opponents.”
“There’s no question mark on ‘is he cheating or not? Has he been dirty?’. That makes a big difference.
“And that’s how every champion should be. He shouldn’t just be neutral.”
Pole! That one was very important, it was close out there. We move forward to tomorrow where we’ll give it everything that we have 🇺🇸 @MercedesAMGF1 #Pole #USGP #TeamLH pic.twitter.com/89AN7GHBAy
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) October 20, 2018