![Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates winning a 7th F1 World Drivers Championship with second placed Sergio Perez](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/formula-1/2020/11/15/TELEMMGLPICT000244565120_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqILVW0RXZ3wCP2MAFKk47Vz3uocoo2XZSur4LFGMQIMo.jpeg?imwidth=680)
![Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates winning a 7th F1 World Drivers Championship with second placed Sergio Perez](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/formula-1/2020/11/15/TELEMMGLPICT000244565120_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqILVW0RXZ3wCP2MAFKk47Vz3uocoo2XZSur4LFGMQIMo.jpeg?imwidth=680)
For a moment of such historic import, it was only fitting that Lewis Hamilton should deliver a masterclass without mercy amid the spray of Istanbul Park, seizing a seventh world title not just by notching win No 94 but by lapping his own team-mate. Four months and 10 days: that was all the time it took, from the first race of a Covid-ravaged season in Austria, for him to draw alongside Michael Schumacher with this staggering septuple.
Perhaps most ominous, for his bedraggled pursuers, was his post-race admission: “I feel like I’m only just getting started.”
At 35, this may be wishful thinking on Hamilton’s part. Age blunted even Schumacher’s powers in the end, during his inglorious final act at Mercedes. But even Hamilton’s most earnest detractors could hardly dispute his incomparable command of his craft this year. Even in a truncated campaign, he has prevailed in every style imaginable: on three wheels at Silverstone, through two red flags at Mugello, and with lights-to-flag dominance in Barcelona, Spa and Portimao. For the coup de grace in Turkey, he produced his most improbable of party tricks, starting sixth on the grid but still crossing the line almost 32 seconds clear.
Thanks to Formula One’s virus-enforced return to tracks it had long ago abandoned, not least this twisting layout 35 miles east of the Bosporus, Hamilton has now won at 29 different circuits. His versatility extends not just to contrasts in settings, but in conditions. Just as he was untouchable in the sun-baked mountains of Styria in July, he conjured a pole lap under Hungarian downpours that Toto Wolff, his team principal, described as “not from this world”. After 10 wins in 14 races, he is as close to touching perfection as at any stage in his 13-year career. There is rarely any error, any lapse in focus, or any trace of the skulduggery that diminished Schumacher’s standing.
For all that he has a peerless car, Hamilton has proved himself as a champion beyond compare. The statistics bear it out: while his seven crowns represent a distinction shared with Schumacher, he has amassed three more wins than the German and a remarkable 29 more pole positions. Hamilton is operating on such a rarefied plane that his record-breaking has become almost a fortnightly occurrence, but even he felt overwhelmed by emotion as he pulled into his bay in parc fermé, marked with a golden sign. “That’s for all the kids out there, who dream the impossible,” he said, breathlessly.
Once he had taken a moment to collect his thoughts, Hamilton addressed the magnitude of what he had achieved. “I know often I say that it’s beyond my wildest dreams, but I think my whole life I have secretly dreamt as high as this,” he said. “Seven championships is just unimaginable. There is just no end to what we can do, this team and I together.” While he has only a month to run on his £40 million-a-year contract, it does not sound as if Wolff needs to worry about the man he calls his “rock star” renewing, even if he has to sell half Mercedes’s headquarters to fund the deal.
![Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates winning a 7th F1 World Drivers Championship with his team in the Pitlane](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/formula-1/2020/11/15/TELEMMGLPICT000244568085_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQfyf2A9a6I9YchsjMeADBa08.jpeg?imwidth=350)
A drastically changed world has helped flesh out a fresh side of Hamilton’s character in 2020. Where before he would intersperse 21 grands prix a year with birthday parties in Los Angeles or fashion shows in Shanghai, he has been compelled by Covid-19 to adopt a far more ascetic lifestyle. “I haven’t gone out, I haven’t gone for dinner, I’ve just stayed in my bubble, getting room service every day,” he reflected. “That’s because I’ve had a championship to fight for. This year, I’ve sacrificed more than ever before.”
This less frantic existence has concentrated Hamilton’s mind on the convulsions beyond the F1 paddock. Having begun his season by unveiling a helmet with the words “Still We Rise”, he has brought issues of racial injustice to the heart of a sport that traditionally would rather not know, kneeling before each race and wearing a T-shirt calling for the arrest of the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor in Kentucky in March. Repeatedly, he has ranked his contribution to the Black Lives Matter movement as more significant than his feats on the track.
Hamilton has not always been flawless in this department. Having made his F1 debut in 2007, it has taken him until 2020 to back his words on the lack of diversity in his sport with actions. In recent months, he has made substantial efforts to accelerate change, setting up a commission in his name to increase representation of ethnic minorities in motorsport. He is not about to relent in this pursuit of grander causes. Intriguingly, he said on Sunday: “We’ve got to face and not ignore the human rights issues in the countries we go to.” Three of the next five races are in Bahrain, a country that has often stood accused of using F1 to deflect from repressive measures against its people.
For now, Hamilton should be afforded the luxury of relishing how far he has travelled. The boy from Stevenage who would suffer racist abuse in karting has been anointed as the most successful F1 driver of all, not to mention the outstanding British sports figure of his era. It is not just about the car: one only had to look at Valtteri Bottas, 14th on Sunday in the same Mercedes machinery, to understand that. It is about the resolve and remorselessness of the man at the wheel. Hamilton’s knighthood will surely come, and soon. In the meantime, his latest monumental milestone deserves savouring on its own.
Lewis Hamilton delivers masterclass without mercy for 'kids who dream the impossible'
For his seventh world title, the British driver has prevailed in every style imaginable and is a champion without compare