KEY POINTS

  • Mark Webber chose Hamilton over Schumacher as the all-time great F1 racer
  • Ahead of 2020 season, Hamilton is chasing Schumacher's record of 7 titles
  • Webber retired from motor racing at the end of 2016 season

Former Formula One (F1) racer Mark Webber has picked Lewis Hamilton ahead of legendary Michael Schumacher as the most complete driver in the history of the sport.

Hamilton, who clinched his sixth driver’s title last season, is chasing Schumacher’s all-time record of seven world titles ahead of F1’s upcoming season, which is set to begin later this week.

Webber, who retired from motor racing at the end of the 2016 season, has suggested that Hamilton is the all-time great and there is “no question about it.”

“I think he’s more complete than Michael [Schumacher]. I think he went about those results in a technically cleaner executed way, just by the way of wheel-to-wheel combat and no real trickery in his contracts with the other drivers."

"I think he’s certainly up there. I mean, obviously Alain Prost, where do you go with the [Niki] Laudas, the [Jackie] Stewarts, or [Ayrton] Senna? Clearly, Michael is absolutely in there, he’s got all the records in terms of championships and race victories, but I’m confident that Lewis can give those a red hot go,” Webber added further in his interview with Speedcafe.com.

Michael Schumacher
German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher gestures at the end of the Brazil's F-1 GP on November 25, 2012 at the Interlagos racetrack in Sao Paulo, Brazil. YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Considering Hamilton has been a polarising figure in F1, Webber was questioned about his relationship with the reigning champion. To which, the former Red Bull driver replied, "I personally get on with him well. I don’t have any issues with Lewis, but it’s not something for everyone."

"But on the track, he is Nadal and Federer-esque. He just executes, and he does it in a way that is very, very clinical. He doesn’t go to the stewards often; when was the last time he was done for speeding in the pit lane? He’s got so much mind management and composure. He’s an extraordinary, extraordinary talent now, and he keeps reinventing himself, so deserves everything.”

Webber, who raced in F1 between 2002 and 2013, won nine Grand Prix races and finished third in the driver’s world championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013, all of which he had achieved while driving for Red Bull Racing.

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