Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have been F1 colleagues for sometime now and Alonso has now provided Hamilton with probably the highest praise that he would have ever received from a fellow F1 driver.
Speaking about Hamilton’s impending 5th title, Alonso said that Lewis will have to be one of F1’s 5 best(most successful) drivers.
“Michael, Fangio, [Ayrton] Senna, [Alain] Prost, Lewis – probably this will be the top five that comes to my mind.” Alonso said while speaking about the best drivers across generations.
“It’s difficult to compare different times and different ways to win those championships.
“Lewis winning five now and being the same as Fangio is a great achievement.
“If one had to do that in our generation I’m happy that it’s Lewis because he showed the talent and he showed the commitment.
“When the car was dominating, he delivered and won the championship. When the car was not good enough to win the championship he still put in some performances to show his talent. That’s difficult to see in our days.” Alonso added.
Alonso and Hamilton were teammates at McLaren during Hamilton’s rookie F1 season, wherein he largely outshone Alonso and made the Spaniard a little insecure too.
The Brit would be extremely pleased with this praise from one of the most celebrated F1 drivers.
Talking about being on the brink of equalling Fangio’s record, Hamilton said that he couldn’t quite believe that he had come so far in his F1 career.
“Fangio is like a godfather of the whole sport for us,” he said.
“He’s one of the greats from the beginning and will always be admired in the sport. It is crazy to think I’m embarking on a similar number of championships that he had.” he concluded.
Hamilton’s best quality has been the fact that he hasn’t quite messed up whenever he has gotten the best car on track; something that Vettel cannot always boast of(at least not this season).
