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Why Lewis Hamilton should not be considered the Formula 1 GOAT
#1 Who did he beat to win the title?
Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's career, he has 7 championship wins to his name. The runners-up in all those title wins were Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. Excluding Vettel, who suffered from a deficit in performance with the Ferrari, neither of the other drivers were what anyone would call the elites of the grid.
When Hamilton beat Felipe Massa, there were drivers like Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and Robert Kubica on the grid with uncompetitive machinery at their disposal. When he beat Rosberg and Bottas, Mercedes was in a league of its own. Contrast that with Michael Schumacher beating Damon Hill in 1995 in a Benetton that was slower than the Williams, or Ayrton Senna beating Alain Prost and vice-versa. The difference in the caliber of the opposition some of the great in F1 beat during their championship wins becomes apparent.
It is said that "You're as good as the competition you beat". In his title triumphs, Lewis Hamilton did not really beat the elites of the sport. To an extent, that does count against him in the GOAT debate.
#2 Losses to his teammates and Max Verstappen
Regardless of how many Lewis Hamilton fans believe that he was robbed in Abu Dhabi, the fact that Max Verstappen was the better driver in 2021 simply cannot be ignored. The Dutchman made the least number of mistakes and was the more consistent driver. Crucially, without his misfortunes, he would have won the title even before the last race of the season.
With that out of the way, let's address the elephant in the room. Hamilton was beaten in the championship by Jenson Button in 2011 and then to the title by Nico Rosberg in 2016. That's two drivers beating the Briton in the same car.
When you talk about a driver being the 'greatest of all time', should he be losing to his teammates not once but twice in his career? While both Button and Rosberg were very high-caliber drivers, one can safely say that they were not a bigger adversary than an Alonso or a Vettel. Somewhere down the line, when you talk about the best to ever do it, he cannot be losing in his career to drivers of a lesser caliber.
#3 The impact of other legends on their teams was more significant
There is clear evidence of Lewis Hamilton making a massive difference to Mercedes when he joined the team and even at times when the team was in the dumps. That, however, pales in comparison to the impact Michael Schumacher had on Ferrari, a team that had not won a title in close to two decades. Or Niki Lauda's impact on both Ferrari and McLaren. Or what Alain Prost was able to do with McLaren by guiding the team through multiple regulatory changes.
There is no denying that throughout these years of Mercedes dominance, whenever there was a blip, Hamilton brought the team back to the front. One just can't compare that, however, with the 5 years of toil Schumacher had to contend with at Ferrari before the team entered its dominant years. There is a massive difference between what the German did at Ferrari and what Hamilton did.
#4 Is he even a true rainmaster?
Lewis Hamilton is arguably a superb driver in wet weather. Is he the best driver, however, when the track is wet? The answer is no! While the Briton has had some mind-blowing races in the wet, throughout his career there have been other drivers that have prevailed in similar conditions.
Even in 2008, when Hamilton had the crazy win at Silverstone, it's very hard to say that his win eclipsed Sebastian Vettel dominating a wet race weekend in a Toro Rosso in Monza. During his stint with McLaren with Jenson Button as his teammate, the latter had as many 5 wins in mixed conditions while Hamilton had none. While Hamilton has had multiple race wins during his time with Mercedes, there are losses as well to Max Verstappen in the 2019 German GP or 2021 Imola GP.
While Hamilton is a fantastic driver in wet weather, it does appear that for all his accolades, he's not your go-to driver when it comes to wet-weather conditions.
#5 The "Best Driver" tag came with the "Best Car"
For Lewis Hamilton, the greatest decision of his career was to move from McLaren to Mercedes. The move gave the British driver six more world titles to add to the one he already had and, in the eyes of many, elevated him to "GOAT" status. Before the rise of Mercedes, however, Hamilton did not enjoy the accolades of being considered the best driver on the grid.
While he was surely one of the best drivers on the grid, when you talk about the best driver on the grid, it was either Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso who got the most votes.
For Hamilton, his rise to prominence in Mercedes coincided with Alonso's McLaren-Honda debacle and Vettel going to Ferrari and completely imploding. Due to this, the drivers that were the true gold standards of Hamilton's generation couldn't compete with him anymore.
If we look at the ecosystem before that, from 2010 to 2013, Hamilton could not beat either Vettel or Alonso (despite the Spaniard having arguably the inferior machinery) in the championship standings. During that time, Hamilton even lost to Jenson Button in 2011.
Hamilton was considered an elite driver even before he joined Mercedes. It is, however, fair to say that he was not the gold standard of racing before jumping into a rocketship called Mercedes and starting to compete with Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas every week.
Conclusion
We have now had a look at both sides of the coin. On one side, we have compelling arguments on why Lewis Hamilton as the GOAT makes complete sense with the way he has fought the odds. On the other side, it makes you think that maybe the GOAT in F1 should not be losing to his teammates multiple times in his career.
At the end of the day, it's hard to deny that the seven-time world champion will surely go down as one of the best to ever do it. Is he the greatest though? Well, we're going to let you take a call on this one. What do you think? Is Lewis Hamilton the F1 GOAT? Make your picks in the comments section and let us know!
