Jackie Stewart calls out ‘lucky boy’ Lewis Hamilton’s F1 success, wants him to prove himself further by moving to a non-performing team.
Lewis Hamilton is on a roll in is F1 career. He secured his 5th F1 title in the 2018 season, equalling Juan Manuel Fangio’s record and inching closer to that elusive Michael Schumacher record of 7 world titles.
Hamilton and Mercedes have dominated the sport in the past 5 years, with Mercedes winning both the driver’s and constructor’s championship. The one year that Hamilton lost out on the title, Rosberg swooped in to keep the Mercedes domination alive in the driver’s championship too.
While, a lot of F1 critics and pundits hail Lewis Hamilton as the best driver of this generation, Jackie Stewart believes that ‘luck has favoured’ the Brit.
“Lewis currently is not only driving well, he has also got the best team in the world with the best engine in the world right now,” Stewart said as quoted by Motorsport.com
“But he’s driving it well too.
“You’ve got so many other dimensions to it when you’re a Formula 1 driver, and the dependency of the car.” he added.
Stewart emphasised on the point that Hamilton maybe needed to move to a midfield team in order to challenge himself.
“When I left the Matra, I went to a March [for 1970]. Now that was a challenge!” Stewart said.
“So, if Lewis were to go from Mercedes and go to an uncompetitive team, that would be a challenge.
“Lewis has done extremely well, but he’s been a very lucky boy, to have [former McLaren boss] Ron Dennis pick him up the way he did, to bring him up the way he did.
“And in those days, the McLaren was the best car in the world in Formula 1, including Ferrari.” he concluded.
