Michael Schumacher has told the BBC’s Inside Sport that Lewis Hamilton could beat his record of seven F1 world titles. Or maybe Felipe Massa could. Or Sebastian Vettel. Either way, he’s quite prepared for it to happen. ‘Records are there to be broken,’ he says.
In the interview he also says that he highly rates Hamilton, but was reluctant to say whether he thought he was the best current F1 driver or not:
‘When you think about what he has done in such a short time – just arriving and competing last year with [double world champion Fernando] Alonso and being very often quicker – that talks for itself.’
You can see the whole Michael Schumacher interview tonight on Inside Sport, on BBC One at 23:20. (Or, if you’re reading this after then, have a look on BBC iPlayer.)
I really don’t think Schumacher gives a toss.
But here are some of his records Hamilton will be shooting for:
Most wins: 91
Most pole positions: 68
Most fastest laps: 76
Most ‘hat tricks’ (win from pole with fastest lap): 22
More Michael Schumacher stats
It’s always worth remembering with Schumacher’s records that he did many more races than some of the other all-time greats. For example, although he set three more pole positions than Ayrton Senna, he had over 100 more starts to do it in. If you compare hit-rate of pole positions:
Jim Clark 45.83%
Ayrton Senna 40.37%
Michael Schumacher 27.2%
There is one record Hamilton could take this weekend: Youngest ever F1 champion. Fernando Alonso set that record in 2005.
well no one can reach Schumacher’s record…
like Keith said hamilton has a huge mountain to climb….
its better that we leave Schumi where he is and find a place near him
i will consider it a big achivement for hamilton to be near him….
I dont see Hamilton staying at the top of the sport for along time, he might take thais title maybe one or two more.
Alonso hasnt spoken yet and if he will come to Ferrari in 2010 then who can tell.
Any way Hamilton is in for a challenge.
Competition is tough now. Lewis has mad skills, but the only thing stopping Kubica and Vettel from challenging him are their cars. Lewis could of course raise his game, he’s still a rookie. If so, he’d have every possibility to swallow Michael’s record.
I dont like shoemakers..
Hamilton still need to mature in his driving. In this process he will either become much better (hopefully breaking the recod) or he will lose his edge, and fall out of it
hamilton has and had the best material in his career is an additional fact we should point out. I am 100% shure if Vettel is in his postition he would be alreday formula 1 champion. Times have changed these days the modern formula 1 driver need not have that much mechanical or technical knowledge to set up a car. I my eyes the best rookie is Vettel and i am shure hamilton’s career in the formula 1 will be meaningless
I think the new generation of F1 drivers (Hamilton, Vettel, Bourdais, Kubica, etc) are just incredible, and most of them are even maybe better raw pilots than Schumy… What a pity we never saw Michael and these new talents on the same grid…
2009 will be a struggle for Hamilton, as he likes the car to have slightly more front downforce than rear, and that’s a problem, as in 2009, that will leave him with either no grip or traction, or he will spin the car through every corner.
Hamilton, I feel, takes everything for granted, Vettel should be the one in his seat.
i agree with what ‘bemar’ says: I dont like shoemakers..
does it matter if Hamilton beats afew of schumacher’s records
i dnt think it does
Lets not forget that Shuey was more than willing to cheat his way to the title rather than win through sheer skill. ramming people of the road, blocking qualifying laps ect…
at least Lewis is honorable
to me Schumachers records mean nothing as he was a cheat.
I know which record Hamilton’s gunning for – Number of extremely aggressive overtakes.
This year or next (or both), Hamilton WILL be world champ. And as a rookie, he can only keep getting better. I think the anti-hamiltons know that too, so they’re kicking him in the ribs whilst they’ve still got the fodder to use against him.
Consider that Big Schu made all his records virtually without competition, Senna was up against mosters of F1 like prost and mansell, oh the good old days, those senna-prost fights were epic
i think theyre very similiar hamilton and schumacher. both doing dirty tricks and doing everything possible to win. i remember schumacher took out damon hill to get the title. and ofcourse mclaren is like ferrari nowadays 5 years ago dominating the cabinets or atleast trying.
Lewis will win titles, starting with next weekend you would presume, but I don’t think he can possibly win 7 titles. Mainly because he seems to be committed to Mclaren, and also because there are drivers around who are as good as him. Schumacher was simply much better than the drivers he was racing against, which was an advantage. Plus I doubt we will ever see one team dominate in the way that Ferrari did from 2000-2004.
Here’s a thought, why dont we stuff Lird Stiggles in the F1 car to see if he’s faster? Given his past record, surely someway somehow he could manage it? =)
Yes Mark I agree with you that Hamilton is honorable … as long as you don’t count trying to push people out at the first corner that is … so please don’t come here comparing Schumacher with Lewis. While I don’t agree with some of his tactics, it certainly doesn’t make Hamilton more honourable than him; far from it actually. Oh and also let us not forget Canada 2008, when he “accidentally” steered into Kimi’s back …
On the other hand I do agree that given time Hamilton will beat his record.
Schumacher is just too scared, i beat he has allready wet himself and schumacher is helping massa and he helped make the enzo that is so uncool it just is.
lowis is much better then him
i like lowis so much he is my hero i wont to do is job i’ll be fastter then him.
By the time Alonso comes to Ferrari their build quality will be like the pre Schumacher era.
I think that Hamilton will win the WDC a couple of times but probably not that much. In about 10 years we will see
the facts are that hamiltion like many others before him will be a one trick pony in the sence he will probally win a championship and then slowly wind down he might win the championship this year if he keeps his head screwed on and dont let things bother him however next year i cant see it happening due this years rookie drivers who have proved themselves in f1 are moving into the ‘A’ teams such as vettel who has already won a race and is finishing higher up the podium each time though the car that he is in is effectivly last years with a few tweaks
I think Hamilton is a great driver. He might just be the next Shumacher or i actually think that even better than that. But when Schumacher and Häkkinen was having champion competition, then it was worth watching. Now the cars are so highly designed etc. and pit stops and tactics affect too much in the race , that i dont even like to watch Formula 1 anymore. Im Finish my self and hate to look at Kimi Räikkönen messing up more and more, race after race. He could of been great too, but seems to be too full of himself.
Finnish.hehe
Well, there you go. If Michael Schumacer says it, it’s true: Lewis Hamilton may or may not be really good, so maybe will some others.
Erm, ok, what ever you say Mike.
@Mark: You´re kidding, right?
@shad: What the hell are you babbling about?
Jeez…
Well räikkönen did one good thing in last race and let Massa go pass him. Ofc he didnt said it, but we all know that was order from ferrari team. Its allways fun to listen what excuse they have to the press.
I like M.Schumacher as much as any other Ferrari fan. But there are three great reasons why he won so many titles. 1) His driving skills, 2) His F1 car, 3) and the team he was driving for. The last two reasons played a bigger role. There is a bunch of drivers that have the same skill as he does, but not the same heart. That’s what separates him from the rest. Now back to my point. The last two reason played a bigger role in his winning of championships. No matter how good Mclaren cars were this year, Ferrari still had an edge, because they were doing it longer. Maybe a few more 100 million dollars will place Mclaren par with Ferrari. Then Hammy will have a better chance of winning as much championships as M.Schumacher. Hammy has the potential to do it all he needs is a great team (which he has) and a faithful car (that does not mess up). Then he will be on his way to being a F1 great (which he is).
There’s little to choose between the drivers these days… Hamilton, Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Alonso.. they’re all capable of winning races given the right car…. it’s difficult to pick one driver as the best from this list.. it’d be great to see all these guys in equal cars…
I dont think we will ever see anyone beat Schumachers records in our lifetimes at least. As for hamilton there is too much competition at the minute for him to win more than perhaps 2 WDC. If anyone will beat schumi’s records it will be Alonso.
Lewis is completely different to schumi. Its unlikely he will win as many championships as schumi, cos of the competition.
The racing would be immense if Vettel and kubica moved to ferrari. what a team that would be. I don’t expect many new records in the next ten years, just some amazing races, full of drama, and, as of next year, with no james allen!
ROFL @ Mark.
Not only does he know nothing about F1, but apparently he also thinks it’s still 1945. Might wanna get yourself a new calendar mate … you’ll discover were in 2008. Comments like yours simply don’t float anyone’s boat anymore.
@ comment 19:
What? Schumacher’s got nothing to prove. He’s a racing legend (but for all the right reasons remains debatable). He didn’t just ‘quit’ F1. He stood aside because he knew everyone else was getting sick of him, and that the sport was becoming boring.
Scared? You have it wrong. FERRARI is running scared, Schumacher’s just enjoying the spectacle.
You spelled record and cousin wrong
African Stig
there is more tough competition nowadays and many gr8 drivers. only cars shud get better.
Only fools say Schumacher is a cheat. Get lost, you know nothing about the sport. Schumacher has nothing to prove to anyone anyway. Is is the greatest driver in F1 history. All through his carrer he has been at the very front of the sport. Granted he has made a few stupid moves in his career but Hamilton is not far of Schumis record as it stands alread. Hamilton is not a great driver, he is a good driver who will do well in his career. Trying to compare him to Schumi is just down right stupid.
@ charlie comment 9….hamilton likes his car with more front downforce than rear…so surely next years smaller rear wing and larger front wing will be exactly what he wants then?
DOnt bring racial comments into this forum JUZA…who ever said the stig was american or chinese??? Maybe he is african!
bemar… i think u mean cobblers
Mark have a point doh. Schumacher did played pretty dirty. In the good old times there was some real team work aswell. Same team drivers helped each others To get points if situation required that. At the end of the season the only one who was allowed to get full help from the team and nr2 driver was ofc.nr1 driver
That kinda sucks. Well, for the common good and money idd say 
Hamilton will get it – he’s just amazing!
Hasn’t anyone thought of sending the Stig to compete in F1? If he did, then he’d shut up those excuse-machines.
hamilton will piss all over massa. it will rain massa will crash out
i think hamilton has a good chance if he gets his act together in brazil on sunday.
or he can just hope for rain…
I wonder why Ferrari was invincible in seasons ‘00-’04. The drivers help team develop a car, and I suspect Michael Schumachar’s exceptional ability to interpret to the team how car should behave had some part to play in it.
It’s easy to believe that Alonso and Raikkonen will be better at developing a car (given their experience) than Hamilton will ever be – so next season don’t expect McLaren to lead from the front.
I also cannot wait to see Honda catch up the frontrunners by 2010 so that Button can join the action. Yes, yes, he’s won one race in 8 seasons, but remember 2004, when he was the only driver to come close to beating Ferrari (in a race).
schumy is there, in the ·legend· fridge just next to the subzero one on the cool-wall and he’s not alone.
but pilots these days are nothing more than employees, they do it because they have to and they do it as they have to, or did someone see Kimi ruin Lewis’ perfect smile after canada? he didn’t because he didn’t give a f*ck. he got paied, he didn’t have to sit in a cramped hot car for another 30 mins.
nascar pilots to fight, do bump into each other, because there it’s about the pilot not just some computer game for engineers.
even though Lewis or Alonso or Vettel beat Schumy’s os Senna’s old records, it’ll feel as if the records were smashed by a GPS autopilot, a computer…a driving Deep Blue.
JC was right, even soccer wich is the dumbest sport ever invented it becoming more interesting than 800hp, 800kg cars racing….THIS IS BAD. and very very sad
nascar drivers DO fight…srry
Yess indeed…Lewis may beat Schumacher’s record but certainly not in F1
Schumi was disqualified from 1997 championship.
Taking this into account his records SHOULD be:
Wins: 86
Poles: 65
Fastest Laps: 73
Hat Tricks: 21
However, only his points were expunged.
Hold on, Schumacher was faster than everyone else beause of what went on behind the scenes at Ferrari. In his early Ferrari days, he, ross brawn, rory byrne and jean todt were the nucleus of a struggling ferrari team.
they completely rebuilt the team and developed the car until eventually, it reached it’s pinnacle in 2004. it is without doubt the biggest achievement ever. Schumacher waking ferrari up and getting them winning agai is an achievement that will never be bettered. His work through those years enabled him to dominate in the fashion that he did.
He even had to work magic at Benetton as when he joined, they were fourth best and he pulled them to the top in 1994 and 1995.
For sure Hamilton can surpass that record but he already has the tools at McLaren. Winning 7 or 8 titles at McLaren is not as big an achievemnt in my eyes as any of Schumacher’s titles.
The reason schumi was so successful was not because of the slow competition or a superior car, he created the superior car and that enabled him to make everyone else look slow. He was just much cleverer and a faster driver than anyone else.
Oh and cmon Jenson Button. 2009 is YOUR year.
Can’t believe the negative comments coming out against Lewis Hamilton. He is about to win a World Championship despite the best efforts of the FIA and Ferrari (some might say they are one in the same) and will be the youngest ever to do so. The true test of a driver is, supposedly, the ability to be faster than your team mate. Well in his debut year he outpaced a double world champion! In every form of racing he has been involved in he has always been quicker than his team mate. He has Pole Positions, Fastest Laps, Victories, Incredible overtaking moves and ambition. Given the right machinery I see no reason why Hamilton cannot be a major player for the next 10 years.
Schumacher and Hamilton are both quite good. BUT none of them are the best because nowadays there are so many computers involved. Thats why I think if you want to know the best F1 driver ever, look to the likes of Alberto Ascari.
Mark said…
Lets not forget that Shuey was more than willing to cheat his way to the title rather than win through sheer skill. ramming people of the road, blocking qualifying laps ect…
at least Lewis is honorable
to me Schumachers records mean nothing as he was a cheat.
what planet have you been on for the past 2 years?
Daryl said…
Schumacher and Hamilton are both quite good. BUT none of them are the best because nowadays there are so many computers involved. Thats why I think if you want to know the best F1 driver ever, look to the likes of Alberto Ascari.
it’s always difficult comparing competitors across different eras, since sports usually evolve over time. not many drivers from yesteryear would do well today. i’d say jim clark, sterling moss, and jackie stewart would be fine in the modern era.
likewise, not many modern drivers would succeed in the glory days. senna, prost, schumacher, hakkinen, mansell.
Schumacher did what he had to do to win but do not forget he alos won chanpionships in lesser cars, Benneton for example and the early years in Ferrari….
Sorry but having a go at Schumacher shows a lack of education….
The way the FIA is going at the minute, Hamilton probably won’t win this year.
Massa+home Gp=Ecclestone being biased, dropping Hammy 10 places and moving massa to first.
scissors_cut_paper, yes that’s true, but he likes it with just a little more, not too much, plus he has to mature a lot. Next season, we should see a closer battle at the front with teams like Honda and Renault and BMW getting even better.
I was just thinking, the end to last years championship was a bit too much like the film Cars- a hot shot rookie driver nearly wins the championship in their first year, another championship contender leaves the team, in the final race, 1 championship contender has to deal with a problem, the similarities go on and on…
another media bullshit
shumi said it cos he was asked his opinionand i think he meant it not just about hamilton
what a crap
ferrari have actually said something worthwhile
http://www.formula1.com/n ews/headlines/2008/10/859 5.html
I can’t imagine any other manufacturer teams thinking anything different either
the reason schumacher was great was the fact that he fought off all his competition over a period of ten or so years. If you believe the rumours Raikkonen will be quick again next year. Sebastien Vettel is a huge talent. There may even be someone still racing karts who will eclipse Hamilton’s ability in the next ten years, you just don’t know. That’s what Schumacher means when he says wait and see I think.
I haven’t mentioned Bruno Senna either…
hamilton will win, so long as goes for a whizz in front of massa’s car. The sight of water will make massa spin
well, i say water…
very creative way of winning a championship there catersam but he needs to do it on his tyres just before the race so he gets bad traction and wheelspin off the line. The smell will be so bad he’ll be forced to pit to change his smelly tyres.
I really think that F1 should go back to manual gearbox, whithout any “rev limiter”, to see the real good drivers that can understand a car!!! Those times when engines of “not so good” drivers blown away!!!! and the real good driver understood what the car was doing and how it was doing, that’s why Prost, Mansel, Senna, Lauda, Fangio, Clark and so many others are racing legends, because they were able to get so close to the car that you could almost think that they were the same thing… these were the good’ld days!!!
Schumi4ever, are you on crack? or german? or both? Like him or not, if you don’t recognize that Hamilton is the real deal then something is wrong with your head. Great car or not, how often does a rookie come into F1 and not only win races but also almost win the championship in his FIRST season? 9 wins and 13 poles in his first two seasons so far…if that isn’t the start of true greatness, nothing is.
and to the people who make character judgements on Hamilton, saying things like “he takes things for granted blah blah blah”…um, do you know him personally? Have you spoken with him? Do you magically know what he’s thinking? What grounds do you have to make these assumptions about him? Listen to his post qualifying and post race interviews. He is the most grateful person I’ve heard in a long time in professional motorsports. He’s always thankful and amazed at where he is and what he’s accomplished, always thanking his team. People who make these outrageous claims about his personality simply dont like him and are MAKING THINGS UP! come on, grow up people.
and to say today’s drivers are less technically and mechanically savvy than before? are you serious? today’s drivers almost have to be engineers to communicate with their team about what the car is doing and what it needs during tests and practice. they can’t/dont just say, “the car is loose” or something like that. you don’t get anywhere near F1 if you cant understand and communicate about intricate technical details about the car. do some research before you make asinine statements like that.
and all this if if if if crap about things like Vettel winning the championship already if he was in a better car. come on. if grandma had balls she’d be grandpa. the fact of the matter is that those sorts of assumptions are ridiculous. there are so many factors involved there is no way of even being close to certain. Who’s to say a McLaren or a Ferrari would suit Kubica’s or Vettel’s driving styles? They are the best of the rest, plain and simple. Until they get a drive in a better car, there is no way of knowing otherwise.
and people who say Hamilton will have problems next year because of the rule changes are downright ignorant. they were saying the same thing about this year because of the loss of traction control. Hamilton is a FORMULA 1 DRIVER! and a great one at that. he and every other driver will adapt to the changes in the off season, just like they always have whenever changes effecting the cars’ performance have taken place. the people who say he’ll have trouble act like the first time he’s gonna drive the new car will be in Australia in march next year. come on. have a little sense. drivers of Hamilton’s caliber will adapt in about a dozen laps during a test.
and to say he’ll be spinning shows just how much you dont know about racing cars. the cars are gaining slicks next year and losing some downforce. spins happen in lower speed corners, where mechanical grip has more importance than downforce. the cars will be gaining mechanical grip with the slicks. if Hamilton was going to be doing any spinning, he would have done it this year with the loss of traction control. and the downforce loss is mainly going to effect higher speed corners, which the drivers will deal with by braking more and taking the corner at lower speeds.
wow, that was quite a rant. but warranted given the nonsense that some of you are spewing.
Have you read this disgraceful arrogance??
http://news.bbc.co.uk/spo rt1/hi/motorsport/formula _one/7686562.stm
he may beat schumachers records but schumacher was nothing
now he is comparing himself to senna – noone does that except god
hamilton shut up and hurry up and loose the championship again
um “LMAO,” did you forget to read the part where Lewis said:
“By no means have I ever suggested that I’m better than Ayrton – for me he’s the king, and always will be,” Hamilton said.”
i hate when people like LMAO take things completely out of context. he said he ADMIRED Senna. that Senna was his role model and that he aspires to be like Senna. how is that arrogant? how is that disgraceful? sounds more like a tribute to me.
Alonso, biggest cheat in the game taking over Schumis position there, Ferrari are the biggest cheating team in formular 1 and I dispise them. I I Believe Lewis will smash most of Schumis records without cheating like he he did, without a doubt in my mind.
yea, after all these bullsh1t, and lewis took the champion, those who said stupid comments, eat your own shoes.