'Clean' Hamilton stands above Senna and Schumacher - Walker

Legendary F1 commentator Murray Walker believes that Lewis Hamilton's impeccable track record in F1 puts the six-time world champion above Grand Prix greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

With three wins in four races so far this season, Hamilton is off to a flying start to equal Schumacher's historic record of seven titles in F1, while the German's tally of 91 Grands prix wins is also at risk of being overhauled by the Mercedes star.

Debating who is the greatest F1 driver of all time is a futile exercise given the vastly different environments in which each generation raced.

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In a podcast with the Australian Grand Prix's 'Fast Lane', Walker doesn't exactly succumb to the useless determination but nevertheless reasons why Hamilton would be his top man among the sport's modern day racers.

"I used to say it was impossible to say [which is the greatest] because the drivers and the circuits and the cars were different," explained the 94-year-old.

"You can say who was the best of his generation, like Schumacher was the best of his generation and Senna and various other people, but there is no common yardstick that you can measure all of the F1 drivers over the years. So it’s entirely subjective.

"For me, the greatest of all time is Tazio Nuvolari, who competed before WWII and when I mention his name people look blankly!

"Fangio took a lot of beating, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart - I could go on - but which is the best I really don't know. I used to say Fangio. I think I'm going to have to say very shortly Lewis Hamilton.

"If you look at it in terms of statistics, he's already got more poles than Michael Schumacher. He's got at least three years in him if he doesn't hurt himself or leave Mercedes for some reason or they decide to stop.

"In which case, he's got at least another three championships ahead of him, so statistically he will become the greatest.

"But he's also in my opinion - and this is very contentious indeed - better than either Schumacher or Senna because both of them, Schumacher and Senna, adopted at various times in their career, highly debatable driving tactics.

"Like Schumacher stopping deliberately at Monaco to prevent [Fernando Alonso] getting pole position, like Schumacher colliding with Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997, like Senna with Prost in 1990 in Japan.

"Lewis Hamilton has never been anything like that. He's always driven as clean as a whistle.

"He's an extremely nice, gigantically talented driver, and I don't think we've ever seen anybody like him before."

As the BBC's voice of Formula 1 - and of motorsport in general - for decades, Murray Walker would have loved to commentate on Hamilton's miraculous final lap on three wheels in last weekend's British Grand Prix.

"I’d have gone absolutely bananas, through the roof of the commentary box!" he admitted.

"It has to be one of the most exciting finishes of all time, when you think about it, Lewis coasting home to victory and then looking like he is coasting home to nowhere."

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