Proof at last that Hamilton is statistically the best British F1 driver of all time
Proof at last that Hamilton is statistically the best British F1 driver of all time

Proof at last that Hamilton is statistically the best British F1 driver of all time

Where Lewis Hamilton ranks among the British greats within Formula 1 is a question that has been asked regularly since he won the world title for the first time in 2008.

However, we can now definitively answer the question of where the Mercedes man sits and that is on pole position.

Hamilton was considered alongside Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Nigel Mansell, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, James Hunt, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Mike Hawthorn, the first British F1 world champion.

Here is how our 10 Brits would line-up on the grid at Silverstone if a virtual British legends race was able to take place:

F1-British-GP

We reached our conclusion by ranking the 10 drivers in terms of certain achievements and then giving each feat an individual weighting.

For example, because more points are now on offer for a race victory than back when the likes of Moss and Stewart were competing, it would be unfair to judge total points equally to the number of F1 titles a driver had achieved in their careers.

So, the driver with the most points was given 10 points and the racer with the least just the one point.

But in terms of world titles, it was 60 points to the winner and six for the driver with the fewest. If two drivers had lifted the same number of titles, second-place finishes in the final standings were used to separate.

In terms of the other categories and weightings, race wins were pointed between 50 and five, win percentage between 40 and four, pole positions between 30 and three, best British Grand Prix result between 20 and 2 and total starts between 10 and one.

After tallying up the totals, Hamilton and Stewart remarkably finished level on points, but Hamilton took pole on the basis that he trumped the three-time world champion in more of the categories.

The result would also be clearer if Hamilton was to win the British Grand Prix this year, as his win percentage in F1 would jump above that of Stewart.

F1 betting odds for Hamilton is 3/5 to win the British Grand Prix for the third time in his career and a word of warning is that on the other two occasions he has accomplished this feat, he has gone on to become world champion.

 

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