1,000 Greatest Drivers: Lewis Hamilton
Pilot of The Cockpit Where It Happens.
Okay, that was a really stupid joke. I definitely wanted to take some time on this one because the fact that Hamilton has the greatest statistical record in F1 of all time yet has never led my open wheel teammate model I guess requires some explanation. I suppose part of it could be because he had a lot more intra-team competition than many F1 legends have as he has literally been teammates with three World Champions and it’s totally possible that number could increase at some point since I don’t think it would shock anyone if George Russell or Charles Leclerc wins a title someday. This likely meant that he didn’t have #1 status for as long as many other legends have and probably explains why Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were the highest-rated F1 drivers in my model almost every year in the 2010s while Hamilton never was. I don’t think either of them is better. Hamilton’s longevity is easily enough to clear them, although I think you can argue both of them had higher peaks. I suppose Hamilton ended up lower than you’d think in my model because he just never had the kind of dominant seasons where he swept teammates or came close to doing so, while drivers who hit higher peaks like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Max Verstappen all did so several times. I think you can make the case that his Mercedes cars were so dominant that he arguably didn’t push himself to overachieve the level of his equipment as much as some other legends, which might explain this. Having said that, even if I’m not convinced he’s the best driver of all time, he’s certainly one of them. His weaker-than-you’d-expect teammate record is why I only gave him two #1 seasons, but I still had him as the highest F1 driver a lot but sometimes took drivers in other series over him (Martin Truex, Jr.’s 2017, Johan Kristoffersson’s 2018, and Scott McLaughlin’s 2019, which I think were all more impressive in the context of their series).
It looks like I’ve found a woman who might be willing to serve as a notary for my mom to sign a power of attorney form so hopefully that will allow me to theoretically be allowed to make our housing payments. Whether I’ll have the money to do it might be another matter. I’m probably gonna need to stop visiting her so often and instead hustle for more work, but I’m definitely really wanting to be with her every day since I know there might not be a lot of time left…
