Lewis Hamilton more skilful than Michael Schumacher claims Williams F1 chief

Former Mercedes strategist James Vowles has worked with some of the greatest talents in Formula 1. His time at the Brackley outfit has seen him work with not only Toto Wolff, who steered the team to eight championships, but both Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.

With 14 world championships shared equally between the two of them, Vowles admitted that Hamilton was the more naturally talented driver in his comparison on the High Performance podcast.

Vowles worked closely with the two drivers during their time with the team – something that has allowed him to give an honest and credible assessment. 

“Michael wasn’t the most skilful in the car. I’ve already said that was Lewis,” Vowles admitted. “But he knew how to extract every millisecond out of himself and every millisecond out of the team.”

The Briton described Hamilton’s approach as almost instinctive. 

“Lewis just had these – just as I said – oodles of natural talent. When you go out in FP1, he’s like an octopus all over the wheel. He’ll change every setting on the wheel, near enough, and explore it. But it’s what makes him incredible.

“And if I give you an example of it, there was a time where, on simulation in Brazil, it said ‘hold seventh gear up the hill.’ And within two laps, Nico was doing exactly as we asked him to do.

“Within two laps, Lewis went, ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ dropped back down to sixth – and was finding a tenth there.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images

“It took until the end of the session before Nico saw the data. Lewis is this optimiser. He’ll use data as a starting ground, but he’s got a feel beyond anything else for it. And he has no issue exploring the boundaries.

“That originally manifested itself in – you’d often see him go off at Turn 1. He’d find the absolute limit of braking and it would just push him wide to Turn 1, then botch the lap. And one of our biggest frustrations with him was that out of 20 laps, he did one. Like, come on – you’ve got to do more than that.

“Actually, if you look at the maturity Lewis had between 2013 to now, you’ll see he completes every lap. He’s now found a way of still gaining the experience of the mind of the lap out of it.

“He was this perfectionist. Braking was his strength, his forte – maximise everything under braking, and then, ‘I know the limits of the car,’ and build from there and get into the rhythm of things.”

Despite praising Hamilton’s abilities, there were “downsides” to his process of understanding his car.

“Now that came with some downsides. Often, he would change the car so quickly that you’d lose yourself. Certainly, as engineers, it’s difficult – when your data is all moving, the track’s moving, the grip’s moving, the driver’s moved everything on the steering wheel… you don’t know where you are.

“And then he comes in and we’ve changed mech balance and aero balance and you think, ‘OK— we’re starting from scratch here, basically.’

“That’s some of the reasons why at times you’ll see Lewis drop backwards – and often, when he jumps forwards again, it’s because he’s gone to a setup that’s known, and now he’s back on the money.

“But he’s able to do that – and many drivers aren’t. He’s able to explore often and accept that he’ll have a whole session perhaps in the wrong place on setup. But he’s learning from it. And that’s Lewis all over.”

Photos from Hungarian GP – Practice