SIMILARITIES

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TWO GENIUS ​

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Schumacher and Hamilton are two of the best drivers in the history of F1, with great natural talents, great driving skills, very fast in training, good in races, good in the rain. They are two outstanding drivers without a doubt. In the opinion of the author of the website, they are two drivers at the same technical level, but they have similarities and differences in several aspects.

 

Let's start with the similarities: both were born in January: Schumacher was born on January 3, 1969 and Hamilton was born on January 7, 1985. But the coincidences don't stop there.

 

KARTING BEGINNINGS

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Both started karting with limited financial resources from their respective fathers.

 

Rolf Schumacher (Michael's father) was a bricklayer and in the 1970s, he became the administrator of the Kerpen karting track (Germany). Even though he wasn't wealthy, he built a kart for his eldest son, who could train for free at the track. Michael didn't have much money to invest in the sport, and at one point in his career, he even took used tires from the kart track's trash cans to use on his kart.

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Anthony Hamilton (Lewis's father) was also not wealthy. He worked two jobs (IT manager and office cleaner) to support his son's career. He learned to be a kart mechanic so he wouldn't have to spend money on a mechanic. Anthony even bought a used kart from newspaper ads in England for his son.

F1 DEBUT ​

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Both started in F1 "putting their foot in the door" of two world champion drivers: Schumacher gave work to Piquet at Benetton in 1991 and Hamilton gave work to Alonso at McLaren in 2007. ​ Schumacher and Hamilton beat Piquet and Alonso in practice but lost in race finishes and both were virtually level with their teammates in points.

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Schumacher v Piquet in 1991:

Starts 4 x 1 starts

Arrivals 2 x 3

Points 4 x 4.5 (*)

 

(*) The difference would be greater in Piquet's favor if the 1981 Australian GP had not been interrupted and divided his points by 2.

 

Hamilton v Alonso in 2007:

Starts: 10 x 7

Arrivals 7 x 10

Points 109 x 109 (tie) ​

 

FIRST CONTROVERSIAL TITLE

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There are those who say that Schumacher did not deserve to win the 1994 title, because Benetton was irregular and there are those who say Hamilton did not deserve to win in 2008, because he benefited from Renault's fraud in the 2008 Singapore GP. ​Both won their first controversial titles by just 1 point, competing against inferior drivers (D Hill and Massa), but were hampered by very questionable punishments from the FIA.

 

In 1994, Benetton was ineligible, but the FIA ​​did not disqualify the German due to political pressure from Flavio Briatore. In return, the entity punished the German extremely severely in the British GP 1994, when Schumacher passed Hill on the formation lap. At first, a five-second STOP AND GO was imposed, then the Race Directors disqualified the German and later went back on their decision to apply STOP AND GO. Given all the confusion, the FIA ​​decided to disqualify Schumacher and suspend him for two races (Italy and Portugal). All of this caused Damon Hill to artificially reach Schumacher's points. In the last race of the year, the German crashed with the English driver and became champion.

 

In 2008, there was the Singapore GP episode in which the Renault team faked the 2nd driver's accident, so that Alonso would win the race and this farce benefited Hamilton. But we cannot forget that the FIA ​​applied two very questionable punishments to the Englishman in the GP Belgium 2008 and in Japan 2008. In Spa, the Englishman was punished with an item that was included later in the regulations and on the Mount Fuji circuit, Hamilton took a hit from Massa , but the Race Direction punished both drivers, claiming that the Englishman made a dangerous start, in a very questionable interpretation of the regulations. With all this interference from the FIA ​​(the same as what was done in 1994), Felipe Massa reached Hamilton's points at the end of the year and the English driver was champion, passing Timo Glock in the last corner of the 2008 Brazilian GP.

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COMPETITIVE CARS ​

 

Schumacher and Hamilton were the drivers, in the entire history of F1, who had the most cars capable of competing for titles, and nothing is by chance, they are the drivers with the highest numbers in F1. It's a fact: A GOOD CAR makes a lot of difference in your career.

 

Schumacher had 10 cars able to compete in the championship and won 7 of them, they were: 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006. ​

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NOTE: In 1997, Schumacher fought for the title until the last race of the year, much more due to his enormous talent and the mistakes and problems of Villeneuve and Frentzen, because that season the Williams car was much better than any car on the grid and the Ferrari was not competitive. ​

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Hamilton also had 10 championship-ready cars and won 7, they were: 2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

 

NOTE: In 2012 McLaren did well in several races and could have rivaled Red Bull, but its lack of reliability took away all of Hamilton's chances of competing for the title, the Englishman had 3 breakdowns in races he was leading, lost 75 points, apart from the points that the other drivers inherited, that's why this car is not on this list.

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BOTH LOST 3 TITLES IN THE LAST RACE OF THE YEAR ​​

 

Schumacher lost 3 titles in the last race of the year (1997, 1998 and 2006) against Villeneuve, Hakkinen and Alonso. Hamilton also lost 3 titles in the last race of the year (2007, 2016 and 2021) against Raikkonen, Rosberg and Verstappen.

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CLASHES WITH TEAMMATES ​

 

Schumacher beat all his teammates except Piquet (1991) at Benetton and Nico Rosberg (2010, 2011 and 2012) at Mercedes. In 1991 Schumacher was a rookie, but we have to take into account that Piquet was also no longer at his peak.

 

Hamilton beat all his teammates except Button (2011) at McLaren and Russell (2022 and 2024) at Mercedes. It should be noted that in 2011 Hamilton had more problems than Button and in 2022 he was trying out a lot of different things in the car, while Russell came with the more conventional equipment.

 

 

OPPONENTS AFTER THE SEVENTH TITLE

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After the 7th title, both Schumacher and Hamilton faced very tough opponents and failed to win the OCTA CHAMPIONSHIP due to this competition. Schumacher caught Alonso in 2006 and lost in the last race of the season, while Hamilton caught Verstappen in 2021, and also lost in the last lap of the last race of the year.

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CAREER ENDINGS

 

Towards the end of their careers, both drivers performed well below their peak.

 

Schumacher returned to F1 at the age of 41, and lost to Nico Rosberg in all the driving requirements: poles, wins, podiums, fastest laps, points, starts and finishes in front. Schumacher performed so poorly that Mercedes did not renew his contract for 2013.

 

Hamilton, after 39 years, did not adapt to cars with ground effect, lost much of his speed in qualifying, being beaten in training by George Russell inside Mercedes (2024) and by Charles Leclerc inside Ferrari (2025).​​​

 

DIFFERENCES

CAR STYLE ​

 

Schumacher liked rear-wheel drive cars and Hamilton prefers slightly forward-wheel drive cars.

 

Schumacher was brilliant in rear-wheel drive cars (oversteering) or neutral, but he confessed that he could not drive front-wheel drive cars (understeering). The 2010 Mercedes, according to Schumacher himself, was a very front-wheel drive car. Due to this behavior of Mercedes, Schumacher did not do well at this stage of his career (of course, his 41 years also influenced it).

 

But an interesting fact was in the 2010 Spanish GP, when he was given a car with a chassis with a wheelbase one inch longer, to be more rearward and he finally managed to beat his teammate, Nico Rosberg. Schumacher said at the time: ​“I feel more comfortable driving the car we have now.” (F1 Racing Magazine pg 30) But for the rest of the season, this car with a longer wheelbase did not work out.

 

Hamilton is brilliant at driving slightly forward and neutral cars, but he has more difficulty in rear-wheel drive cars, precisely because of his hard braking style on curves. This driving style is not suitable for rear-wheel drive cars or cars with GROUND EFFECT, hence the reason he has difficulty in this type of car.

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SCHUMACHER AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF FERRARI​

 

Schumacher has to be recognized for being responsible for the restructuring of Ferrari at the turn of 1996 to 1997, by asking for the hiring of Benetton Engineers (Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne), surrounding himself with the best F1 professionals to put together a super team. It took him a while, but he reaped the rewards and won 5 F1 titles. 

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In terms of work within the team, the German has always been a great tester and a good tuner of cars with rear-end oversteer. However, on certain tracks this type of setup doesn't work well. When this happened, Schumacher had no qualms about copying Rubens Barrichello's setup, who was recognized by all the teams he worked for in F1 as a good car tuner.

 

It is public knowledge that Schumacher used the Brazilian's setup in the 2000 Italian GP (*), the 2002 Spanish GP, the 2002 Australian GP and the 2003 Australian GP. Ross Brawn, Barrichello and Michael Schumacher himself have already confirmed this.

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(*) Right after the mechanics worked on the rear wing, Schumacher beat Rubens' time and took pole position. Video of the 2000 Italian GP qualifying from 44 to 50 minutes. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwXIUQEdyYA&t=2517s (Mr Vinicius F1 1995 Channel)

 

Rubinho is little recognized by fans and journalists who are not familiar with the technical side of F1, but he helped the German to develop Ferrari and it is no coincidence that Schumacher, intelligently, always wanted to keep him on the team.

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"Barrichello is a driver underrated by critics, but he has a lot of value for the team, Schumacher often adopts Barrichello's setup." (Ross Brawn, February 2004)

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY8y-kpKhtY - CANAL ENERTO and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsRdnif4qL4. (Rubinho’s interviews on the subject)

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In terms of working with the team, Schumacher knew how to use all the resources to become the absolute number 1 in F1, whether by calling engineers from another team or using the 1st driver contract.

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Adauto Silva, CEO of Autoracing Website, interviewed Ross Brawn during the 2009 Brazilian GP weekend, and he reported that Ross Brawn detailed how Schumacher established himself as Ferrari's No. 1 driver. Source: https://www.autoracing.com.br/adauto-silva-hamilton-na-ferrari-nao-repete-schumacher/

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HAMILTON ON TEAMWORK​

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Hamilton, on the other hand, has a history of relying a lot on his "natural talent", doesn't really like using the simulator, sometimes relaxes when it comes to working with the team, and sometimes doesn't seem to find the right fit for the car. This happened in 2011, when he didn't adapt to the new Pirelli tires and Button did better than him that year, and it happened again in some 2024 races.

Hamilton easily won the 2015 title and relaxed towards the end of the year. Nico Rosberg began to lead the team in setting up the car and the German driver won 7 races in a row (Mexico 2015 to Russia 2016). During this time, Hamilton was seen at several parties (this was confirmed by Mariana Becker at the 2016 Bahrain GP and Toto Wolf was even asked about it), while Nico focused on working with the Mercedes engineers at the factory, even during the mid-year holidays. Result: Hamilton had some problems and Rosberg was crowned 2016 champion.​

 

​NOTE: Nico Rosberg defeated Schumacher from 2010 to 2012 and Hamilton in 2016. Nico was a very intelligent driver when it came to setting up the car, preferring to choose settings that were more in his style and that did not suit the driving style of his teammates.

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TEAMMATES 

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Both had completely different levels of teammates.

 

After 1992, Schumacher chose his teammates, even vetoing Villeneuve and Montoya at Ferrari. Apart from that, he always used his status as 1st driver so that his teammates could not access his telemetry. This was said textually by Johnny Herbert (F1 Yearbook Francisco Santos 2003 pg 22), Barrichello and Massa also confirmed that the German's telemetry was not easy to access within Ferrari.

 

Apart from Piquet and Patrese, all of Schumacher's teammates had never won a single race before sharing the team with him. In other words, his teammates (Herbert, Irvine, Barrichello, Massa and Rosberg) were drivers still in the growth phase of their careers when they joined Alemão. ​

 

Hamilton has never directly vetoed any teammate and, as far as we know, his telemetry has never been denied to his teammates. The English driver had 4 teammates at the peak of their careers (Alonso, Button, Rosberg and Leclerc, two champions and one future F1 champion), all of whom had already won races in F1 before sharing the team with Hamilton. Only 3 of his 7 teammates were in the development phase (Kovalainen, Bottas and Russell).

 

For the reasons mentioned above, the Englishman had a lot more work with his teammates than Schumacher had with his.

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FIRST DRIVER CONTRACT

 

Everyone remembers that Schumacher always had total preference within Ferrari over his second drivers (Irvine, Barrichello and Massa), with Ferrari even giving orders to these drivers not to overtake Schumacher or to let the German overtake them. This happened a few times: Austria 1998, Luxembourg 1998, France 1999, Canada 2000, Austria 2001 and 2002, Monaco 2005, Monaco 2006. ​

 

With Hamilton, the only known thing is that this happened in the 2018 Russian GP, ​​when the Mercedes team gave orders to Bottas to let Hamilton overtake him. So Schumacher really had an easier time in this regard than Hamilton.

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OPPONENTS IN TITLE DISPUTES

 

​Schumacher competed for titles against:

• Damon Hill (1994 and 1995)

• Jacques Villeneuve (1997)

• Mika Hakkinen (2000)

• David Coulthard (2001)

• Rubens Barrichello (2002 and 2004)

• Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya (2003) ​

• Fernando Alonso (2006)

 

Schumacher's rivals:

 

Hill, Coulthard and Villeneuve were good drivers, but they were far below the great drivers of the 70s and 80s. Hakkinen, Montoya and Raikkonen were more talented drivers, they gave the German a hard time, but none of them can be considered a genius. I rule out Barrichello, as he was never allowed to compete with Schumacher. Fernando Alonso was the only genius that the German caught after Senna's death and Schumacher himself acknowledged this in 2006.

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Hamilton competed for titles against:

• Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen (2007)

• Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen (2008)

• Nico Rosberg (2014, 2015 and 2016)

• Sebastian Vettel (2017 and 2018)

• Valtteri Bottas (2019 and 2020) ​

• Max Verstappen (2021)

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Hamilton's rivals:

 

Alonso and Verstappen were two geniuses and then he also faced two other very talented drivers: four-time world champion Vettel and Nico Rosberg, who had beaten Schumacher from 2010 to 2012 at Mercedes. He also faced Bottas, who was Massa's teammate at Williams and beat the Brazilian in 2014 and 2015.

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SCHUMACHER'S OPPONENTS X HAMILTON'S OPPONENTS

 

It is difficult to compare drivers from different eras, but two of Schumacher's rivals (Villeneuve and Raikkonen) were teammates of three rivals and one of Hamilton's teammates, so the comparative analysis between them is easier to do.

 

Jacques Villeneuve was a great opponent of Schumacher in 1997, but in the 2000s the Canadian, still at his peak, lost to several teammates, who would later become Hamilton's rivals:

• Button in 2003,

• Alonso in 2004,

• Massa in 2005.

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Kimi Raikkonen was the revelation of F1 in 2003, he was the great opponent Schumacher, finishing just 2 points behind the German in the championship, but he lost to several teammates who would be Hamilton's opponents in the future:

• Massa in 2008 and 2009,

• Alonso in 2014,

• Vettel in 2015 to 2018.

 

​​​​We note that Felipe Massa was the weakest opponent Hamilton had in the F1 title race, but the Brazilian defeated Raikkonen at his peak, in 2008 and 2009 at Ferrari. Kimi was one of the strongest opponents Schumacher had in F1 after Senna's death.

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These comparisons are relevant to reach the conclusion that Hamilton's opponents were, in theory, much more talented than Schumacher's opponents.

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DISLOYAL ATTITUDES  ​

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We have to be fair, there are no fools in F1. Most top drivers have already done some dirt, that's a proven fact. History proves that Senna, Prost, Mansell, Schumacher, Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen have all messed up at some point in their careers.

 

But in terms of number of scams (or unfair attitudes) and different victims, Schumacher wins out of them all.

 

• Hill (Australia 1994, hit the wall and took Hill out of the race),

• ​Panis (Argentina 1997, threw him off the track at the start),

• Villeneuve (Europe 1997, tried to take Villeneuve out of the race),

• Frentzen (Canada 1998, looked in the mirror and threw Frentzen out),

• Irvine (Japan 1999, started badly on purpose so his teammate wouldn't be champion),

• Barrichello (San Marino 2002, required Rubinho's car to race, while the Brazilian took the 3rd car),

• Montoya (Malaysia 2002 and San Marino 2004, threw Montoya out),

• Heidfeld (Australia 2005, closed Heidfeld and made him leave the track, even the German press criticized him harshly),

• All drivers (Monaco 2006 Qualifying 3, obstructed the lane on purpose),

• Barrichello (Hungary 2010, pushed him against the wall, outside the lane's limiting line),

• Massa (Canada 2010, threw it to grass).

 

​Hamilton has also performed not very correct maneuvers on the tracks, but with much less frequency:

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• Accelerating and braking the car abruptly before the race restarts (Japan 2007 and Azerbaijan 2017, these maneuvers caused accidents in the back group),

• Simulated having been overtaken by Trulli under a yellow flag (Australia 2009),

• Pushed Russell out in Japan 2023.

 

In this aspect, it is impossible not to mention that Schumacher had more unfair attitudes during his career than Hamilton.