F1 pundit Billy Monger believes that Lewis Hamilton is ticking all of the boxes to be considered the greatest driver in the sport’s history.
The seven-time world champion already holds a number of the most important records in the sport, including most race wins and most pole positions.
He’s also still on the hunt for a record-breaking eighth world title, and will be hoping that his second place in Australia last time out is going to provide some sort of springboard for him and Mercedes to start closing the gap to the Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Even if he does not win another race or championship, though, Hamilton will rightly go down as one of the greats in the history of F1 and, for Monger, who recently launched new F1 podcast Lift The Lid alongside Johnny Herbert, the Briton has done everything possible to stake his claim as the very best ever.
“I don’t think you ever appreciate that talent until after they’re finished,” Monger told GIVEMESPORT when discussing the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen and where they rank among the greats.
“It’s like with Lewis, we’ve got someone who’s won seven world championships and just because he’s not had the best season last year some people are questioning how good he is.
“I think when he’s retired, young kids that are coming up and wanting to be a Formula 1 driver themselves will be thinking ‘I want to be like Lewis Hamilton who’s won seven world championships, and got all these pole positions and wins.’
“In every stat department Lewis is ticking the box to claim he’s the best of all time, that’s what the stats all suggest.
“So I feel like it’s almost impossible in any sport, really. When you’re seeing that greatness live to appreciate it until it’s gone. The same thing goes for Max at the minute, he’s delivering but I think we won’t appreciate it until eventually it comes to the point where he’s not winning every race and he’s retired from the sport.”
Hamilton nearly has every record you’d wish for in F1 for himself, and he and his Mercedes team will be working as hard as ever to get back into championship-winning contention as soon as possible.
Billy Monger and Johnny Herbert have recently launched the Lift The Lid podcast to give the inside track on being a racing driver. Subscribe to the Lift The Lid podcast here via your favourite podcast platform.
