Cast your mind back to the early 2000s and you’ll recall a time when Michael Schumacher was dominating Formula 1. The German, having already won two World Drivers’ Championships in the mid-90s, won five straight titles between 2000 and 2004, meaning he was the most successful driver in the history of the sport.
16 years later, Schumacher is still top of the pile in terms of titles won, but he faces the prospect of being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, and those who believe that the British star is destined to win another title this season could use a Ladbrokes bonus when making their prediction.
If Hamilton does win a title this season, if the season goes ahead, then he’ll tie the great German on seven titles and aged 35, he still has more than enough time to win at least one more to cement his legacy as the sport’s most successful champion of all time, something that would have seemed beyond the realms of possibility back when Schumacher was constantly racking up race wins and world titles.
Hamilton already sits in second-place on the list of all-time champions, above the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel and he’ll now have Schumacher in his sights.
If he does overtake the record, it’s almost certainly going to be a bitter-sweet time for Formula 1, given Schumacher’s awful health problems over the last few years , but that shouldn’t take away from what will be a historic moment for Hamilton and for the sport as a whole.
