Former Brazilian and Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has given his overall verdict on two F1 greats, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, following the latter’s 92nd record win at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Massa, who is himself an 11-time Grand Prix winner in F1, was a teammate of Schumacher’s back in 2006. While he was a fierce rival of Hamilton’s and ran him close for the Drivers’ World Championship in 2008.
The Brazilian conceded that the best basis for comparing would be if he’d been teammates with both racers, however, Massa still believes that he could provide some insight into both drivers.
Speaking to the In the Fast Lane podcast, Massa said: “I would say on the technical side, Michael was in front. I don’t really see Lewis working massively with the engineers, understanding everything on the technical side. I don’t think he knows the car 100%.
“But talent and pace alone…. Maybe even on the talent side, he’s even over (Schumacher). Because even if he doesn’t work as hard, he can’t do everything in the perfect way.”
Massa elaborated on the point of Hamilton’s obvious talent for the sport by stating that it was clearly noticeable from when he first emerged on the scene in 2007 at McLaren as a teammate of two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso.
Massa added: “He didn’t win the title in 2007 because he made some mistakes and maybe some experience was missing some races. I remember in China he crashed going into the pitstop, he just stopped in the run off area.
“He showed that he was different, he could beat any driver. He showed straight away, in his first year, that even Fernando Alonso, also an amazing talent… he beat Fernando in his first year in Formula 1.”
Following Hamilton’s victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Brit is currently well on course to equalling Schumacher’s record seven World Championships.
The Mercedes driver holds a commanding 77-point lead over his teammate Valtteri Bottas, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is a further 94 points back.
The next round sees the drivers travel to the Gran Premio Dell’emilia Romagna circuit in Italy this weekend.