Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsOpinion

Mansell: Hamilton already a legend

40

Nigel Mansell says Lewis Hamilton is “a legend already” in Formula One after securing back-to-back championships.

Hamilton took his third title in 2015, winning the championship in the United States Grand Prix with three races still remaining. Another dominant season for Mercedes allowed Hamilton to move ahead of Sebastian Vettel and in to third place in the all-time winners’ list, behind only Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher.

When asked if Hamilton would have been successful in Mansell’s era against the likes of Prost and Ayrton Senna, Mansell told F1i: “I don’t get in to that because it was so different and the tracks were so different.

“I would say that Lewis is going to be - and already is - a great, great world champion. For me I think he’s a legend already. All this nonsense about whether he’s a legend or not a legend I think is absolute nonsense. I think he’s a class act! You either like somebody or you don’t like somebody, I like Lewis. I think he embraces life, he has fun, he is great to talk with. He has idiosyncrasies, so do we all!

“But I think some people have a misunderstanding that people didn’t get - like I didn’t - the same sort of opportunity to carry on and do great things too. I don’t care, I’m grateful for what I achieved and I just want Lewis now to make a blistering path forward for the next number of years because I tell you what, the opportunity is there.”

F1i classic: Jim Clark's last wins

Technical preview: What changes in 2016?

Hamilton v Prost v Schumacher

Use the red tabs on either side of the screen to scroll through more Formula One news and features

Five things to look forward in F1 in 2016

Key dates for the 2016 F1 season

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.