"What a dirty driver": When Lewis Hamilton called Michael Schumacher a dirty driver

From 2010 to 2012, British driver Lewis Hamilton had several battles with the legendary German driver, Michael Schumacher. Schumacher made a grand return to the sport with Mercedes, while Hamilton was still driving for McLaren with only one world championship under his belt.

During the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton pulled a brilliant overtake on Schumacher at turn one. The German was running ahead of Hamilton, but the latter pulled to the inside and tried to overtake the Mercedes car. However, Schumacher tried to turn in a bit more, just to close the door on the McLaren driver and ruin the overtake.

Interestingly, this maneuver didn't scare Hamilton, as he kept pushing on the inside line and successfully finished the move. Once the overtake was done, the Briton got on the radio and raged about how the seven-time world champion was a dirty driver:

"What a dirty driver!"

In the end, it was a difficult race for both drivers. Michael Schumacher suffered an airbox failure and had to retire the car near the pit entry. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton met with two different accidents, one of which cost him his rear wing. Despite being lucky with the red flag, which allowed him to fix the rear wing and get back in the race, he received a 20-second time penalty for his crash with Pastor Maldonado. Despite the hefty penalty, he finished sixth in the race.

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Lewis Hamilton feels that Mercedes cannot be compared with McLaren simply due to their downfall

Although Mercedes is unable to remain at the top of the grid, Lewis Hamilton insists that they cannot be compared to McLaren. As per Motorsportweek, the Briton initially stated that the two teams cannot be compared, simply because the Silver Arrows have won many more championships in recent history.

However, he later expressed love for his former team and genuinely wants McLaren to perform better and become a top team once again:

"Well, you can’t compare us to McLaren, we’ve won eight world titles in the last ten years. McLaren is like an old home for me, it’s old family so I’m always looking to see where they are and hope they figure things out and become the team they once were, the team I know them as being in my earlier days and before then, so I hope whatever restructuring they’re doing is good."

He further claimed that Mercedes is still a championship-winning team, saying:

"We’re still a World Championship-winning team, we’ve got amazing people who have been with us on that journey. We always need to hold ourselves accountable, each and every single one of us. We all need to look at how we go about things and how we do it better."

Despite winning several races and championships with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton has always spoken positively about his old team. Considering that he won his very first world championship with McLaren, he will always have a soft spot for the orange British team.