Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged his Formula 1 success is thanks to the “best eight years of my life” at Mercedes.
Earlier this week marked the eighth anniversary of the Briton announcing he would leave McLaren to replace Michael Schumacher at the German manufacturer in 2013.
At the time, Hamilton had just one world title and 18 wins to his name after six seasons, skip forward to now and Lewis is on the brink of matching Schumacher’s two biggest records for the most number of wins (91) and championships (7).
“It’s crazy, I’ve been here a long time. It’s crazy to think of the success we’ve had as a team,” Hamilton told Sky Sports in Sochi.
“But it’s no coincidence when you look at the people, the structure we have, the communication and hard work that goes on, the partners we have involved and how passionate they are.
“It’s been the best eight years of my life, but there was a lot of success before that with McLaren and that was a great period of my life also – a lot of learning, a lot of success together, which was awesome.”
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However, commenting on Hamilton’s achievements, former teammate Jenson Button does think he would have preferred more competition over the years to accomplish what he has.
“I know Lewis, he likes to win, he’s definitely a winner and he’s very skilled,” the 2009 world champion told The i.
“But I know he won’t be enjoying winning as much now as he would have done if he had competition from outside.
“If Lewis had [Charles] Leclerc or [Sebastian] Vettel or Max Verstappen in equipment that could challenge him, I think he would enjoy that a lot more. Or if he had Michael Schumacher and he could beat him…that would mean more to him.
“It’s a tough one because you take every win that you get, but you want the competition to be there to challenge you for that win.”
And while publicly, Hamilton has downplayed his feelings at matching Schumacher, privately, Button thinks it is different.
“I think drivers say certain things to relieve pressure that comes from the outside world but also that they put on themselves,” said the current Sky Sports pundit.
“But to have as many wins as the legend Michael Schumacher will be amazing.
“I raced with Michael during five of his World Championships and it was great just being on the circuit with him.
“He was in superior equipment most of the time but sometimes he wasn’t, so we could have a real fight and it was a privilege.”