Examining Lewis Hamilton's Legacy After Clinching His Third Title at the USGP
It was inevitable, Lewis Hamilton clinching the 2015 Formula One world championship. With four races remaining heading into Sunday's United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, it was a question of when, not if, the 30-year-old would match the great Jackie Stewart's British record of three titles (only Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel have more).
In the end, not even a hurricane could derail Hamilton's epic season. The rains came and came and came over the weekend, wiping out the second free practice session and the final part of qualifying. At some points, Noah's ark would have been a more suitable vehicle around the Circuit of the Americas than an F1 car.
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Hamilton prevailed, though, after a late-race mistake from his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, taking his fifth win in the last six races and 10th of the season. He is now 76 points clear of Vettel in second place with 75 points available over the final three races.
With the championship decided, we can step back and once again look at the bigger picture: Where does Hamilton's third title leave his legacy among the sport's greatest drivers?
Well, his win in Austin was the 43rd of his career, moving him one ahead of Vettel and alone into third place on the career list behind Schumacher and Prost.
And, yes, Hamilton has had the best car for the last two years, but Schumacher had a similar advantage for many of his title seasons, and Prost and Ayrton Senna (who is just behind Hamilton and Vettel on the career wins list) did not win their titles tottering around in midfield-level cars.
The best drivers usually end up in the best machines and, fastest car or not, Hamilton is an incredible talent, perhaps just now testing the limits of his abilities.
Before the start of the 2014 season, when we ranked each of the 32 world champions, Hamilton was 11th (certainly not a foolproof ranking system, but it at least gives us an idea of how Hamilton measures up against drivers from other eras). After his 2014 title, he jumped to ninth, and when we update the rankings at the end of this year, he will move up again.
At that time, I wrote that if he won another title or two, "we will not be discussing Hamilton's position among the drivers of his generation, but rather among the very best drivers in history. He is already on the cusp of that discussion—maintaining his current form for a few more seasons will push him over the edge."
He is there now. Hamilton has always had the speed and raw talent to be one of the all-time greats; now he has the results to back it up.
Earlier in his career, and even at some points last season, there were times when Hamilton seemed emotionally fragile. But since Rosberg collided with him at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, the Brit has been on another level, winning 16 of 23 races.
He has even turned his one weakness from 2014—qualifying—into one of his greatest strengths, taking 11 poles in 16 races this year.
In the post-race press conference in Austin, Hamilton spoke about matching Senna's three championships, saying of his goal:
"It was always to get the three that Ayrton had. Of course, he wasn’t from the same country as me but he was the guy that inspired me as a youngster. Now I’m like… I don’t know where it’s going next. There is no-one else I look to, that I want to equal or emulate now. I’m just going to start… as I said one race ago or something like that, I feel like I’ve got the baton now for myself and Ayrton and I’m going to carry it as far as I can, as strong as I can and keep building and see where I take it.
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There is no reason to believe Hamilton will do anything but continue to burnish his own legacy.
Ferrari have closed the gap to Mercedes this year, but the Silver Arrows still have a distinct pace advantage. With the regulations largely stable again for 2016, Hamilton will be well-placed to shoot for a fourth title.
But if Vettel and Ferrari do continue to close in, it will only help Hamilton's standing in the eyes of neutral observers.
The one criticism you could possibly levy against him over the last two years is that, like Vettel in the four preceding seasons, he won with the best car. A strong challenge from Ferrari next year would give Hamilton the chance to beat Vettel in a closer fight.
Despite our attempts to do so with the world champion rankings, it will always be impossible to accurately compare drivers who never raced against each other. No one can say with any degree of certainty that Fangio was better than Schumacher, Senna was faster than Jim Clark or Stewart was more talented that Prost.
What we can say is that each of those drivers was among the best of their generation and among the best to ever drive an F1 car.
We can also say, now with more certainty than ever, that Hamilton belongs among them.
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