Lewis Hamilton pays touching tribute to F1 rival who is ‘far more than a driver’

Lewis Hamilton has called Sebastian Vettel ‘the best champion he knows’ while reflecting on his fierce battles with the German.

Vettel won four consecutive world titles immediately before Hamilton began his streak of Drivers’ Championship success with Mercedes 10 years ago. Together, albeit on different sides of the Red Bull and Silver Arrows divide, they were by far the dominant forces of 2010s.

Despite the fact Hamilton has enjoyed similarly gripping contests with Max Verstappen in recent years, as well as Ferrari‘s Felipe Massa during his first title-winning campaign, Fernando Alonso when they were both at McLaren, and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, the Brit believes that Vettel stands out above the rest.

And that has as much to do with his off-track exploits as his on-track ability. “Seb is the best world champion that I know because he’s far more than a driver,” Hamilton told a crowd of sponsors in Malaysia as part of a farewell Mercedes tour before his move to Ferrari.

Vettel was vocal about combating climate change during the latter years of his career, and he even admitted that the environmental impact of F1 influenced his decision to retire from the sport in 2022.

Hamilton continued: “He’s someone with real passion, he’s empathetic and he cares for people. He actually is the only other one that’s tried to utilise his platform for something good.

“I’ve met so many celebrities and so many people. There’s a lot of people that don’t take time for others. I think, for me, that makes me… it doesn’t matter how well he drives, he’s so quick anyway, we had great races together. But I think for me, we had the best races together.”

Only Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Verstappen boast more Grand Prix wins than the 53 of Vettel, whose heyday was between 2010 and 2013 with Red Bull. The 37-year-old also notched victories during a six-season stint with Ferrari, and spent the last two years of his career at Aston Martin.

Past comments show that the respect Hamilton has for Vettel is clearly reciprocated. After the Mercedes man’s record-equalling seventh world title win in 2020, Vettel was one of the first drivers to share kind words.

“It’s his day if you make history like that,” he said. “The first thoughts go to him really. It’s a massive achievement. I’m happy I can witness it first-hand. I think every era has the driver or its drivers and Lewis is certainly the greatest of our era, for sure.”