Lewis Hamilton’s “unblemished record” makes him unique compared to other multi-time Formula 1 champions, Mercedes’ James Allison claims.
The Briton might be one of the more divisive figures in F1 among fans, but during his 13 years on the grid, moments of controversy caused by him have been few and far between.
Of course, much of that is because Hamilton’s remarkable success has happened at a dominant Mercedes team, with only the increasingly tense rivalry against Nico Rosberg to speak of since 2014.
But still compared to the likes of Michael Schumacher & Ayrton Senna, who had some questionable incidents, Allison believes the 35-year-old is special.
“He’s one of the oldest drivers on the grid now, still drives like one of the youngest, but in a career of multiple championships and countless wins, you’ll struggle to find a moment on the track where you see Lewis do something ugly,” the Mercedes technical chief said in a YouTube interview.
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“You’ll see him do many, many breathtaking things. You’ll see him do brave things, but you won’t see just crude dodgem car, bumper car stuff or any sort of artifice to the way he drives.
“I hope that he manages to keep this going for the remainder of his driving career because it’s an utterly unblemished record.
“And I think amongst multiple world champions, it is also unprecedented to have all that success without anything that has even the sort of hint of a shadow of poor sportsmanship hanging over it.
“I think it’s impressive.”
Entering what could be considered as the twilight of his career, Hamilton still remains at the very top in terms of the best drivers on the grid with only Max Verstappen considered by most on a similar level.
And Allison puts much of that down to his desire to win.
“The level of drive that Lewis has and indeed, all these multiple champions have, is quite staggering,” he said.
“You can think you’re a competitive person, you can think you’re a driven person, and then you bump into someone who really is and you realise that actually, you’re a sort of middle of the road, lackadaisical drifter by comparison!
“I don’t know that it’s easy to compare the (five-time world champion Juan Manuel) Fangio generation of drivers to the current.
“There’s probably a lot more people doing it now than there were back then, it’s a more competitive market, and the ability to judge the performance levels of the drivers is so much higher than it was back in the day,” the Briton noted.
“I do think that there comes a time where the driver’s racecraft is still incredibly strong, but that last little extra special something that gives them the qualifying genius starts to slip through their fingers.
“One of the interesting things about Lewis is that that’s still very much with him.
“I think he is blessed with extraordinary physical talents to go along with this mental dedication that is quite freakish,” he concluded.