Mosley fancies Hamilton to become F1’s greatest driver

FIA PRESIDENT Max Mosley believes Lewis Hamilton can become the most successful Formula One driver of all time.

Mosley was not too disheartened to see Hamilton miss out on the world championship by a single point last year, arguing that Kimi Raikkonen deserved to win the title.

The Finn clinched the crown in a thrilling climax to the season in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos where Hamilton was cruelly denied after suffering a gearbox problem.

Mosley, though, maintains the 23-year-old McLaren driver will have many more chances to win the championship, potentially eclipsing the seven won by Michael Schumacher.

“If you are thinking about the drivers dispassionately, it was Raikkonen’s turn more than Lewis’,” insisted Mosley.

“But Lewis will get plenty of turns. Unless something dramatically goes wrong, he will win several championships. I think Ron (Dennis) said the other day, that to have missed out on the championship by a point, to have won four races and been on the podium in the first nine races in his first season is a record that will take a very long time before it is equalled.

“If he races for as long as Michael did then he may very well beat his record, but there are some very good, young drivers about, so he is not going to have an easy time.”

Although Hamilton only recently signed a new five-year contract with McLaren, believed to be worth £10m per year, there were occasions last season when the politics of the sport dragged him down.

Not only was Hamilton embroiled in the spy saga, but the trial by ‘YouTube’ following his victory in the rain-lashed Japanese Grand Prix played on his mind.

Hamilton even suggested he could quit F1 if the politics continued to impact on him, yet Mosley has urged him to bank his millions and forget the outside interference. “Lewis and everybody else has to recognise it is a complex sport, and we (the FIA) do our best,” commented Mosley.

“But when you think in our case the ball changes between events, and it’s different for each team, while there are also 50 to 100 modifications on each car between each pair of races.

“We’re trying to keep on top of this and make sure nobody does something that is unfair.

“McLaren have something like 140 engineers trying to improve the car constantly. To put each pair of cars on the grid you’ve something like 800 to 1,000 people at the top end all concentrating on looking for anything that might give them a thousandths of a second advantage.

“We’re looking all the time to see they’ve not done something that is outside the rules to get those fractions, so it’s complex. My advice to Lewis would be to put the money in the bank and don’t worry about the politics. As long as he keeps driving quick he will be all right.

“I’m sure when he said what he did it was the emotion of the moment. You can understand him saying ‘I’m fed up of this’ which he is entitled to say, but I don’t think it would be a considered judgement.”