Three-time Formula 1 champion Jackie Stewart has argued why Lewis Hamilton can’t be considered one of the sport’s greatest ever drivers.
This year, the Briton is set to become F1’s most accomplished driver in history, likely surpassing Michael Schumacher’s record for most wins and matching the German as a seven-time world champion.
However, due to the night and day changes in professional motorsport today compared to his era, Stewart believes Hamilton has had it easier to reach his achievements.
“I don’t think that you can account that sort of level of success just because today there are 20, 22 races,” the Scot told the In the Fast Lane podcast.
“Juan Manuel Fangio is in my mind the greatest driver that ever lived, with Jim Clark the second greatest, even ahead of [Ayrton] Senna.
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“Those people only raced sometimes six to eight or nine races a year in Formula 1, they were driving sports cars, GT cars, etc.
“But the world championship now, Lewis Hamilton, or any of the other top contenders, are doing 22 races – only in Formula 1. Not in touring cars, not in GT cars, not in IndyCars, not in Can-Am cars…
“The pressure today is much more relaxed. Of course, they go to the factory and do the simulator, but that’s not quite the same. It’s a different world.”
Stewart also highlighted the greater dependence on the car, and therefore the dominance Mercedes has enjoyed since 2014, as another element that lessens Hamilton’s success.
“Lewis drives extremely well, makes no mistake, I’m not in any way diminishing his skills but it’s not the same,” he continued.
“[Fangio] drove in such a way, it was quite extraordinary – he would choose Ferrari and then he would think ‘well Maserati next year might be good’, so he never did more than a one-year contract.
“And then he drove for Mercedes-Benz and won two world championships with them because they were the best cars in the world at that time.
“Lewis made a very good decision when he left McLaren at that time and went to Mercedes, I take my hat off to him for making that decision. But frankly, the car and the engine are now so superior that it’s almost unfair on the rest of the field.
“Now you can’t say that, you must take your hat off to Mercedes-Benz, to Toto Wolff and to Niki Lauda for making one hell of a team, for choosing the best engineers, getting the best money that most other teams couldn’t get, apart from Red Bull.
“But it’s not quite the same respect, if you like, of being able to do it in less than the best car, and that’s where sometimes there was a difference between the very, very great drivers and the ones that were very successful.”
As a result… “It’s difficult to say that about Lewis, not being as good as Fangio was in my mind, and a lot of people would find fault in that,” Stewart claimed.
“But I’ve been watching motor racing [since] I was a wee boy. My brother was a racing driver, I was going with him to races and seeing Ascari and Nuvolari and Caracciola and people like that. Some of the best racing drivers in the world, I saw.
“To say Lewis is the greatest of all time would be difficult for me to justify, in the sheer power of what the other drivers were doing.”