‘Hamilton has utterly unblemished sporting record’
Mercedes "trust" Lewis Hamilton to sign a new deal, say other teams lack trust.
Lewis Hamilton stands apart from his fellow World Champions as probably the only one to have an “utterly unblemished” sporting record says James Allison.
Google ‘controversy’ for just about any World Champion, at least in the last 30 or so years, and a list of unsporting moments pops up.
Not so for Hamilton.
Although the Brit arrived in Formula 1 to McLaren’s spygate saga, he wasn’t responsible nor during his intense rivalries with Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel has he ever been found guilty of acting in an unsporting way.
That, says Allison, is “unprecedented” amongst F1’s World Champions.
“I’ve been lucky to work with people who have had the highest integrity. I do think that is a characteristic that marks out Lewis,” the Mercedes tech boss said in an interview on the team’s YouTube channel.
“I think he’s one of the oldest drivers on the grid now, still drives like one of the youngest, but in a career of multiple championships and countless wins, you’ll struggle to find a moment on the track where you see Lewis do something ugly.
“You’ll see him do many, many breathtaking things. You’ll see him do brave things. But you won’t see just crude, dodgem car, bumper car stuff, or any sort of artifice to the way he drives.
“I hope that he manages to keep this going for the remainder of his driving career, because it’s an utterly unblemished record.
“I think amongst multiple World Champions, it is also unprecedented to have all that success without anything that has even a hint of a shadow of poor sportsmanship hanging over it.
“I think it’s impressive.”
Now 35 years of age, Hamilton will be vying for a record-equalling seventh World title when the 2020 Formula 1 begins in July.
With 84 race wins on the board, Hamilton could equal and possibly beat Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 while an eighth win in Canada or Hungary would also see him match the German’s tally for most wins at a single event.
Hamilton already holds the record for most pole positions, 88.
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