Lewis Hamilton has defined an era in Formula One that will be recognised alongside those of other great drivers, the McLaren driver Lando Norris believes. The seven-times champion reaches his 300th race at the French Grand Prix this weekend and Norris acknowledged his achievement, but also emphasised the importance of Hamilton’s influence across the sport and beyond.
Only five other drivers have reached 300 races and in doing so Hamilton’s career has stretched across 16 seasons since 2007, during which he has already broken a series of records. With seven titles, the 37-year-old has matched Michael Schumacher’s tally but stands alone at the top of the pack with 103 poles and 103 wins.
The 22-year-old Norris is in his fourth F1 season and, speaking at the Paul Ricard circuit, was pleased to say he had raced during what he thought would be known as the Hamilton era, one defined by his competition with drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
“You always hear the stories of when there was Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher and in this period it’s been Lewis,” he said. “You hear about the battles he has had, and those guys had with [Alain] Prost and [Nigel] Mansell. In 20 or 30 years’ time its going to be the same about Lewis racing Seb and Max. Then somewhere there’s my name a bit further down … You take it for granted initially because you are doing your own thing but in 30 years’ time that’s when you realise you were in a way lucky to be racing in that time.”
Norris, who has shown no fear in battling Hamilton on track, has earned his respect. He praised the youngster when he led the Russian GP last year only to lose out as the rain intervened and Hamilton went on to win his 100th race. He also described him as a great driver after they went wheel to wheel in Austria.
Behind the scenes Norris said Hamilton was both popular and personable.
“He is well-liked,” he said. “He is a nice person, he seems always to want to help the Brits and the young drivers. He does give advice with little things, asks what I am planning. He has been through everything so he knows what teams try to get out of you and what you should get out of teams. It’s small things but he is always willing to help.” Norris also praised Hamilton’s role in highlighting issues beyond the sport.
“His commitment to equality and diversity and actions in attempting to improve both in F1.” He was a role model then? “I would say so, he has shown that you can be seven-time world champion and go and do other things in your life,” he said. “It’s an incredible achievement to be in the sport for so long to achieve the amount that he has. You respect that he does all those other things, a lot of people have criticised him for these things but it’s not like he has to only focus on F1.”
Perhaps Hamilton’s most singular achievement is having won one race in every season he has competed in, a feat unmatched by any other driver but one that is under threat this year with his Mercedes off the pace of front-runners Red Bull and Ferrari. Although he and Mercedes remain optimistic they may yet challenge for wins this year.
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Indeed, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led the timesheets in first practice just nine-hundredths up on his title rival, Red Bull’s Verstappen. Hamilton sat out the session as Nyck de Vries took his seat as part of the required rookie driver programme. In the afternoon Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was on top, one-tenth up on Leclerc, with Verstappen in third. Hamilton was in fifth with his teammate George Russell in fourth.