Lewis vs Michael: who is the best?

Watching a Formula One Grand Prix on TV these days – where the spectator stands are eerily empty – is not much different from participating in a PlayStation game … one is unreal and the other feels that way.

Yet, even before Covid-19 cleared the fans away from the tracks, motorsport’s premier event was already losing its attraction as a piece of sporting theatre and entertainment. The Mercedes-Benz team and their star, Lewis Hamilton, were so often on the top step of the podium that it took a brave punter indeed to bet against them for a win in any Grand Prix.

Last weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix in Germany produced the expected winner, Hamilton, but also a touching moment when Mick Schumacher, son of the legendary Michael, presented Hamilton with one of his father’s race helmets, after Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 Formula One wins.

Schumacher, still in a coma after a skiing accident in 2013, will be overtaken by Hamilton as Formula One’s most successful driver. But the debates among fans will linger long into the future.

Would Hamilton have been able to go toe-to-toe with Schumacher without the dominant Mercedes engineering behind him? In similar cars, who really would be the best?

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