Hamilton is Britain's greatest racer of all time - Hill

Former F1 world champion Damon Hill believes Lewis Hamilton is the best driver Great Britain has ever produced.

The Mercedes star is a five-time world champion and is on the cusp of securing his sixth title in the 2019 campaign, which would put him ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio and just one behind the all-time most successful driver, Michael Schumacher.

Statistically, Hamilton is Britain’s best, but as for overall impact on the sport he continues to be in the conversation with the likes of Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Stirling Moss, Nigel Mansell, and Hill’s father Graham Hill.

For the 1996 champ, though, he bests them all.

“It should be self-evident that Lewis is the greatest racer we’ve ever produced,” Hill insisted to the Daily Mail.

“One more to go after this one and he has equalled Schumacher, which was considered to be almost unreachable.

“Year-in and year-out, he has delivered against all comers in all situations and he has got this down to a fine art now, the way he goes about it.

“He has matured in every respect. He is properly formidable as a competitor. He is probably at the height of his powers and he knows it and he is relaxed about it.”

Hill believes that Hamilton isn’t appreciated as much as he should be, but reckons this could be down to Formula 1 not being as popular in 2019 as it was when the likes of Schumacher were dominating.

“Perhaps he doesn’t get the wider credit he deserves but that is a problem with our sport,” he added.

“I don’t think it’s Lewis’s fault. I wonder if it’s the sport itself that has drifted away from the centre of attention.

“The fanbase is still there in the UK but the viewership globally, a lot of people moved away from it when Michael was winning everything.”

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