Lewis Hamilton winning his sixth formula 1 Drivers' championship in 2019 makes him only the second driver ever to win as many with Michael Schumacher the only driver ahead of him with seven titles. The Briton's achievements have seen him compared to the German, who's record of 91 wins is also set to come under threat from Hamilton in the upcoming campaign.
Ross Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director and former team principal of the Mercedes F1 team, is among very few people to have worked with both Schumacher and Hamilton. He was one of the chief architects of Schumacher's success with Ferrari and was with Hamilton in the beginning of his tenure with Mercedes, where he has gone to win five of his six titles.
The former team principal first pointed at the similarities between the two F1 greats suggesting that there are very few drivers are capable of what Hamilton is showcasing now, and what Schumacher showed during his time with Ferrari. They are both drivers that dominated their respective eras in Formula 1.
"They are both massively talented in what they do in the car and those moments where they pull something out of nowhere," Brawn said, as quoted on the F1 official site. "Some of the qualifying laps Lewis has done have left the team speechless. Michael was the same. There are sometimes just those drivers who can do that.
"Lewis... has deserved every championship he has won," Brawn added. "He has got himself at the right team at the right time and he is at peak performance. He doesn't make mistakes and is a fantastic driver. His performance is exceptional. It is not like Lewis is winning out of luck. He is winning because he is doing a fantastic job and you have to give him credit."
Brawn, however, did not remain on the fence and went on to highlight the difference between the two great champions. He admits that both Schumacher and Hamilton drove in different era's but believes the former had a more difficult job at the time as it is now much easier for a driver to just turn up and drive the car with technology much more advanced compared to the early 2000's when the German was dominating the sport.
"They were different eras, different competition, different types of car, and quite different personalities," explained Brawn. "Very different personalities.
"Lewis is incredibly professional, dedicated and committed but Michael had an intensity of detail toward the car that Lewis doesn't need. Michael was brought up in an era where there wasn't the technology there is now. Data analysis was pretty crude; driver involvement was much higher.
"Now a driver gets out of the car and the engineer has an analysis of the car's behaviour through every corner. So, the driver almost doesn't have to say very much," he said.
