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Lewis Hamilton is undoubtedly an F1 legend. He started his F1 career in 2007 at McLaren and has since been a dominant presence on the F1 grid. Throughout his stellar career, Hamilton has been teamed with some great talents in their own right. In a rare statistic, 60% of Hamilton's teammates have been world champions.
That just shows the kind of talent Lewis has had to contend with throughout his career in the same machinery. In this piece, we rank Hamilton's teammates and compare their performances vis-à-vis the Briton.
Lewis Hamilton's teammates ranked
#5 Heikki Kovalainen
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Points: 75-148 (33.6%)
Wins: 1-7 (12.5%)
Qualifying: 9-26 (25.7%)
At number five we have Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn teamed up with Hamilton for two years from 2008-09. This period had Hamilton clinching the title in 2008 while the 2009 season was a bit of a dud with the regulation change that saw Brawn stealing the march on the rest of the grid.
Hamilton, however, throughout his partnership with Kovalainen was able to comprehensively dominate the Finnish driver in an unrepeated way. Kovalainen scored only 34% of the total points that the two drivers accumulated. His one fortuitous win in Hungary in 2008 compared to seven for Hamilton, did not paint a bright picture. Overall, Kovalainen comes last in our rankings of Hamilton's teammates.
#4 Valtteri Bottas
Points: 1327-1918.5 (40.8%)
Wins: 10-50 (16.7%)
Qualifying: 31-69 (31%)
Valtteri Bottas was the most recent teammate for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and it's fair to say that Hamilton had Bottas more or less covered. The Finn is not lacking as a driver by any means, but his deficiencies did get exposed while facing a complete driver in Hamilton. The former Mercedes driver could only score 41% of the total points scored by both the drivers.
The damning verdict against Bottas was the number of wins he picked up, with just 10 wins to his name compared to a whopping 50 wins for Hamilton during the same period. The only reason Bottas edged Kovalainen in the rankings was his ability to occasionally beat Lewis in the same machinery, a quality that his fellow Finn never showed.
Lewis Hamilton's teammates ranked (cont.)
#3 Nico Rosberg
Points: 1195-1334 (47.3%)
Wins: 22-32 (40.7%)
Qualifying: 36-42 (46%)
Third, we have the last German to win a world title in Nico Rosberg. Rosberg's perception amongst the paddock has improved since he retired from F1 after beating Lewis Hamilton in 2016. If we look at the statistics and the time these two drivers spent together at Mercedes, however, it does become clear who the better driver was during this partnership.
Although the camaraderie turned bitter in 2014, Rosberg pushed Hamilton further than his Finnish teammates. The German scored 47% of the total points accrued by the drivers with a healthy 22 wins compared to 32 for the Briton. While his win in 2016 flatters the German, however, he only finds himself third in our rankings.
#2 Fernando Alonso
Points: 109-109 (50%)
Wins: 4-4 (50%)
Qualifying: 8-9 (47%)
Fernando Alonso's partnership with Lewis Hamilton turned acrimonious as soon as the young British driver started challenging the Spaniard at McLaren. History has not been kind to Alonso, however, who ended the season on the same number of points as Lewis but only finished behind him on a countback.
Although the partnership lasted just one season, it was one of the most competitive partnerships Hamilton has had in his career. The two drivers were tied on points, had the same number of wins and there wasn't much to separate the two in qualifying. Alonso had a surprise challenge from Hamilton and even though he did implode to an extent with the team that season, he was still able to put together a respectable campaign against Hamilton.
#1 Jenson Button
Points: 672-657(51%)
Wins: 8-10 (44.4%)
Qualifying: 14-44(24%)
Jenson Button does have a deceivingly great record against Hamilton during their stay at McLaren from 2010 to 2012. When Button announced that he would be moving to McLaren to drive alongside Hamilton, many pundits dubbed the decision to be a career suicide for him. During his partnership with Hamilton, however, Button proved himself to be more than a match.
A notoriously poor qualifier, Button had a poor qualifying record against Hamilton but would prove to be a more consistent racer. During their time together, Button was the only driver to have outscored Hamilton on points. Not only that, Button's superiority over Hamilton in wet conditions was a bit of a surprise for everyone as well.
Entering Hamilton's team and outscoring him during a three-year partnership makes Jenson Button the best teammate Lewis Hamilton ever had.
