Hamilton better than Schumacher or Senna, says F1 legend Murray Walker
F1 commentating legend Murray Walker says he ranks Lewis Hamilton as greater than both Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, predicting he will surpass the latter’s records with as many as three more F1 world titles.
The Mercedes driver’s dominant start to the 2020 F1 World Championship has put him well on course to match or surpass Schumacher’s once thought impassable records.
To date he stands just four wins shy of equalling his record 91 grand prix wins, while a title win this year would put him equal with the German in terms of championships.
While the debate over which driver is the greatest of all time will forever rage on and will never provide a definitive single answer based on opinion alone, for Walker – who is still considered the voice of F1 19 years after he presided over his final grand prix – it is the current force that is establishing himself as the best.
Speaking to the Australian Grand Prix ‘Fast Lane’ podcast, the 96-year old skirts calling the Mercedes driver ‘the greatest of all time’ due to the subjective nature of such a comment, but feels he cleaner driving earns him the mantle of being better than Schumacher and Hamilton’s own hero, Senna.
“I used to say it was impossible to say [which is the greatest] because the drivers and the circuits and the cars were different… you can say who was the best of his generation, like Schumacher was the best of his generation and Senna and various other people, but there is no common yardstick that you can measure all of the F1 drivers over the years. So it’s entirely subjective.
“For me, the greatest of all time is Tazio Nuvolari, who competed before WWII and when I mention his name people look blankly!
“Fangio took a lot of beating, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart - I could go on - but which is the best I really don't know. I used to say Fangio. I think I'm going to have to say very shortly Lewis Hamilton.
"If you look at it in terms of statistics, he's already got more poles than Michael Schumacher. He's got at least three years in him if he doesn't hurt himself or leave Mercedes for some reason or they decide to stop.
"In which case, he's got at least another three championships ahead of him, so statistically he will become the greatest.
"But he's also in my opinion - and this is very contentious indeed - better than either Schumacher or Senna because both of them, Schumacher and Senna, adopted at various times in their career, highly debatable driving tactics.
"Like Schumacher stopping deliberately at Monaco to prevent [Fernando Alonso] getting pole position, like Schumacher colliding with Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997, like Senna with [Alain] Prost in 1990 in Japan.
"Lewis Hamilton has never been anything like that. He's always driven as clean as a whistle. He's an extremely nice, gigantically talented driver, and I don't think we've ever seen anybody like him before."
Referring to Hamilton’s victory over the weekend at Silverstone as he ‘three-wheeled’ it across the line following a last lap puncture, the famously animated Briton jokes he’d have gone ‘bananas’ if he was commentating on it.
“I’d have gone absolutely bananas, through the roof of the commentary box! It has to be one of the most exciting finishes of all time, when you think about it, Lewis coasting home to victory and then looking like he is coasting home to nowhere.”
