Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged that if he had been a Formula One fan watching the same man reel off one dominant win after another, it might even have sent him to sleep.
“Having been a fan growing up, having lived in different eras, watching the Schumacher era, of course I know what it’s like,” he said, sympathising with supporters after his fifth win in seven races at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
With yet another pole-to-flag procession in his Mercedes, even Hamilton was reminded of the days between 2000 and 2004 when he would watch Michael Schumacher dominate with Ferrari.
“I was a teenaged kid. I would have woken up, had my bacon sarnie and probably watched the start and gone to sleep and then woken up to watch the end,” he recalled.
“If I was watching today I would do the same most likely and watch the highlights, ’cause it’s much shorter.”
The 35-year-old has won five of the last six world championships and with a 47-point lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, is on course to equal Schumacher’s record of seven titles this year.
He’s also on course to beat the German great’s unprecedented career haul of 91 before the season is over.
He has enjoyed 68 wins with Mercedes, who have started every race this season from pole and have failed to win just once all year.
Their dominance is set to continue until at least 2022, when a wholesale rules change that will see the introduction of new, more raceable cars comes in.
A budget cap, limiting how much money teams can spend on making their cars faster, set to come in next year and tighten in 2022 should also level the playing field.
“Ultimately what fans and people hopefully need to understand is that this isn’t our fault,” Hamilton added.
“Ultimately, the decision makers who design the cars, who set rules are the ones that you can apply pressure to to ultimately do a better job moving forward, if that’s possible.”
