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Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel admit equaling the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio's five titles would represent a special milestone, but both men also put the achievement in perspective.
Last year, Hamilton joined Vettel and Alain Prost in the quadruple champion club, and the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers now have an opportunity to join the great Argentinean driver on the next level.
But Hamilton and Vettel both recognize that Fangio's outstanding accomplishment - bettered only by Michael Schumacher with seven world titles - was achieved in very different times.
"Certainly we will never match him in how successful he was in such a short time and with so few races," says Vettel.
"To have achieved what he did then, where a lot of things needed to come together and car reliability was not what it is now, I think he's probably the best we've ever had in terms of putting it all together."
His Mercedes counterpart agrees: "To have achieved what he achieved then, when danger was at its worst, I think he's the driver that everyone admires the most," adds Hamilton.
"I actually think he should be celebrated more for his success. It's not really mentioned a huge amount. I feel he's the godfather of the sport for the drivers."
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