Hamilton vs Schumacher

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Lewis Carl Hamilton, commonly referred to as Lewis Hamilton (born on 7th of January, 1985 in Stevenage, England) is regarded as one of the best Formula One (F1) drivers of the modern generation. The British national, claimed his first F1 world championship in 2008, being the very first black person to win the coveted title.

Hamilton started his racing career at the age of 8 and 2 years later was successful in winning the British Kart Championship. At the age of 13, he was able to secure a position in the McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Program. Here he was offered the opportunity to enhance his skills. During the time period between 1998-2000, Lewis was able to win the European and world karting championships. By the age of 15, he became the youngest winner ever.

Lewis then moved onto car racing, he was able to win 10 out of the 15 races of the 2003 British Formula Renault race series championship, ultimately claiming the championship. He entered the Formula Three Euro series championship during the same year. He was successful in wining the championship in 2005. By 2006, he was with a team participating in GP2 (Grand Prix 2). GP2 races are designed primarily to improve the driver’s skills for the competitive F1 races. Lewis comfortably won the GP2 title within his very first season.

He partnered with McLaren F1 team in 2007. During his first season, he was the second in world drivers’ championship. It was a single point which separated the champion, Kimi Räikkönen of Finland and Lewis. Hamilton was able to win four races during his rookie season which was on par with the record set by Jacques Villeneuve for the most number of wins during the rookie season. One year later, at 23, he was able to secure five victories ensuring the drivers’ championship. Lewis Hamilton was the youngest to have claimed the title, till Sebastian Vettel secured the championship in 2010.

The McLaren-Hamilton partnership was a fruitful one where, the team was able to win two races in 2009, then three races in both 2010 and 2011 and improved it further in 2012 by winning four races. Hamilton transitioned from McLaren to Mercedes-Benz F1 team in September, 2012. The first season at Mercedes in 2013 was not entirely successful as Lewis only managed a solitary victory. But was still able to secure sufficient points to remain in the top five positions of the driver’s championship, continuing an unbeaten streak of seven continuous seasons of being ranked 5 or above.

2014 was a successful year for Hamilton where he recorded a career best of 11 race victories and in the process claiming his second drivers’ championship. He continued his domination into 2015, winning his third driver’s championship a whole month prior to the conclusion of the season. In 2013 as well as 2014, Lewis Hamilton along with his teammate Nico Rosberg ensured Mercedes-Benz winning the constructor’s championship. In 2016, Niko secured the title along with Mercedes. Hamilton finished second behind Niko. The very next year, Hamilton won his fourth drivers’ championship following nine race victories. In 2018, he secured his fifth title joining the exclusive company of Juan Manuel Fangio for the second highest number of championship victories. One year later, he went passed Fangio bringing his championship victories to six. In 2020, Lewis Hamilton managed to equal Michael Schumacher's record tally of seven Formula One World Championship titles.

Michael Schumacher, fondly referred to as Schumi (born on the 3rd of January 1969 in Hürth-Hermülhein, West-Germany [present day Germany] is the record holder for the most number of Formula One(F1) Grand Prix race victories and F1 series championships. The young German, had a fond liking for go-kart racing since childhood. This was augmented with the fact that his father was responsible for managing a go-kart track. By 1984 and 1985 Michael was able to win the German junior karting championship. He improved even further by 1987 by claiming the German as well as European karting titles. Michael moved up from karting to F3 racing, consisting of cars slower than F1 cars. Just two years later, in 1993 he was able to become the German F3 championship.

Schumacher joined F1 racing in 1991 with the Jordan team. Next year he shifted to Benetton where he claimed the drivers’ world championship consecutively for two years in 1994 and 1995. Prior to the commencement of the 1996 season, he partnered with Ferrari. That year he secured the third place in the championship. Schumacher suffered a fracture in the leg following a crash in the 1999 season, but went on to claim his third championship in 2000. This was the first time since Ferrari secured a drivers’ championship since 1979. The win in 2000 was followed by five consecutive victories till 2004. Following his seven victories, he was able to surpass Juan Fangio’s record of five victories which remained intact for almost five decades. He achieved third and second championship positions in 2005 and then 2006 respectively.

Schumacher ended his racing career in 2006 to become a test driver and function as an advisor to team Ferrari. When he retired, he had won 91 F1 Grand Prix race victories which easily surpassed the record of 51 races set by Alain Prost. He came out of retirement in December, 2009 with Mercedes for the upcoming 2010 season. He raced for three seasons with Mercedes but was not able to gain a position higher than eighth in any race. Following the setbacks, he retired in 2012. Schumacher’s incredible performance on the racetrack bought in immense wealth in the form of race winnings and other endorsements. This made his one of the highest paid athletes in the history of sport. At his peak, he had an estimated income of $100 million per annum. He was also extremely charitable, being a special ambassador for UNESCO in 2002. He was applauded for his generous donation of $10 million for the relief programs following the Tsunami of 2004. Unfortunately, in December of 2013, Schumacher sustained skiing accident in France where he hit his head had a direct impact with a rock. Though he was wearing a helmet, he suffered major brain trauma and had to be put in a medically induced coma till the June next year.

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