"Pretty cool" - Lewis Hamilton's nonchalant response to becoming 7-time F1 world champion in 2020

Lewis Hamilton dominated the 2020 F1 season to equal Michael Schumacher's record of seven world titles. When asked about how he felt after achieving the feat, Hamilton was pretty nonchalant about it.

In an interview for Mercedes fuel partner Petronas’ YouTube channel, Hamilton said that winning seven world championship titles was “pretty cool”.

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have dominated most of the turbo hybrid era to notch up consecutive world titles. The 2020 F1 season, however, was on another level.

The first race of the season didn’t go as planned for Hamilton. He tagged Red Bull's Alex Albon into a spin, earning himself a penalty, while his teammate Bottas dominated the race.

Hamilton, however, was back on form from the very next race at the same venue. He then went on to notch up three successive wins to amass a comfortable lead in the championship.

Apart from a few hiccups when Mercedes botched their strategy, like in Monza and Sochi, Hamilton was the most dominant driver on the grid. He was often seen leading his team-mate — who drove the same car — home by nearly 15 seconds.

At the Turkish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton displayed his wet weather mastery after driving for the entire length of the race on a single set of intermediate tires. He went on to win the race, in turn sealing his seventh F1 world championship.

In an Instagram statement posted on Twitter after his triumph in Turkey, Hamilton said:

“Leading up to today, and even after I crossed the line, I’ve been gathering my thoughts about what's most important to me.”

“This year has been so unpredictable. With the pandemic and obviously the season being pushed back by several months, I had the most downtime I’ve ever had in my life. It gave me the chance to really think about my ultimate purpose.”

“Seven World Championships means the world to me, I can't even describe how much, but there's still another race we've yet to win.”

Meanwhile, in the same race, Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas had a miserable time on the slippery track and spun six times. Throughout the race, Bottas struggled for grip after sustaining damage from a turn 1 incident with Esteban Ocon.

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Helmut Marko doubts George Russell can challenge Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

Red Bull special adviser Dr. Helmut Marko feels that George Russell might not be able to challenge Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes from the get-go, given his race pace at Williams this year.

In an interview with the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, Dr. Marko said:

“I first have to see how fast Russell really is.”

“In qualifying, he was fast last season. But in the races, he was hardly superior to Nicholas Latifi. So, we have to wait and see how fast he’s going to be in the race. If he can indeed match Hamilton’s speed, that could be an advantage for us.”

After three years with Williams, the Mercedes junior driver is stepping up to be Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes, 2022 onwards. Throughout his F1 career, Russell has been known for his impressive qualifying performances, but has tended to fall away on race day.

When he substituted for Hamilton at Mercedes for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, Russell was immediately on pace. He looked set to win the race but could only salvage P8 after a slow puncture and a botched pit stop from Mercedes.

In 2021, he earned praise from Fernando Alonso for his defensive driving against the two-time F1 world champion at the Austrian Grand Prix. It remains to be seen if Russell can replicate his skills going into 2022 with Mercedes.