Lewis Hamilton could add 20 wins to a record 100, says Ross Brawn

Lewis Hamilton could stretch his record of race wins to 120 when he became the first Formula 1 driver to achieve in a hundred years, sports CEO Ross Brawn said Monday.

The seven-time world champion, who turns 37 in January, has two more seasons on the Mercedes contract and few doubt he tastes success.

Two points away from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the top of the ranking after winning the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on Sunday, the most successful driver in the history of the sport is not going to give up.

MALTY: Hamilton’s legacy involves more than 100 wins

“Who knows where it will end?” said Brawn in a column on the F1 website and predicted that the British would still win every year.

“I don’t think we could predict 200 wins, but I think we could certainly predict another 20 because he’s still very competitive and motivated.”

When Michael Schumacher retired with a record 91 wins, some observers questioned whether anyone would ever be able to match Ferrari’s great achievement. His friend and technical manager Brawn was one of them.

At the time, the German had 40 wins more than previous record holder Alain Prost and 50 more than Ayrton Senna.

Hamilton won 92nd place in Portugal last October.

Britain’s closest still-active rival is former Red Bull and Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who is a four-time champion with 53 wins.

Both he and Vettel are heavily indebted to the fact that there are now far more races in Formula 1 seasons than even in the fairly near future, with 23 sets coming next year after a record 22 in 2021.

The first championship of 1950 had six grand prizes as well as the Indianapolis 500 race, which was avoided by Formula 1 drivers.

Hamilton has now won more races than triple world champion Jackie Stewart, the most successful British driver, even started.

Scotland called it to quit in 1973 after winning 27 out of 99.

Sochi was Hamilton’s 281st start, while Schumacher’s career was 307, Prost’s 199 and Senna 161.

Verstappen, who turns 24 on Thursday, has competed in 134 races and won 17 – the first at the age of 18, making him the youngest winner.

If someone is going to challenge the Hamilton record, a Dutch driver would be the leading competitor.

However, one record that Verstappen can never compare is Hamilton’s victory in every season he has competed since his sixth McLaren race in Canada in 2007.

Since 2014, the year after he joined Mercedes, Hamilton has averaged more than 10 wins a year.

Verstappen has won seven of them.

In contrast, Schumacher only won his second season and 18th race and drew blanks at the end of Mercedes in 2010-12.

Schumacher and Vettel together hold the most wins of the season, 13 in 2004 and 2013. Hamilton’s best was 11 in 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2020