Lewis Hamilton will embark on a new challenge driving for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2025 season.

After an illustrious racing career at Mercedes, taking the team to new heights, he will be wearing the iconic red uniform, partnering with Charles Leclerc. With Mercedes, Hamilton scaled new heights in his F1 career, bagging a record of six championship titles. With a total of seven titles, he leveled the record previously set by legendary driver Michael Schumacher.

Now that Lewis Hamilton is moving to Ferrari, he’s been constantly compared to Schumacher during his successful run with the team. The German won five of his seven championship titles with Ferrari. At 39, Hamilton isn’t exactly past his prime just yet and is seen as a driver who can lead Ferrari to championship glory for the first time since 2008. There’s also a possibility that he can add another driver’s championship to his tally and enter a league of his own.

However, not everyone is rallying behind this thought; Michael Schumacher’s brother, Ralf, has chimed in on his bold claims on the GOAT debate. In doing so, he highlighted a major advantage his brother Michael has over the former Mercedes driver. “The biggest difference is that Michael, among many other qualities, was able to develop a car perfectly for his driving style together with the engineers. Lewis can’t do that. He’s never been able to do that.” Ralf said this to Sport1.de.

Another obstacle Hamilton might face in recreating his triumphant moment with Ferrari is Charles Leclerc. He has been Ferrari’s poster boy for quite some time, and he is seen as the next superstar driver. “That makes things even more difficult for Lewis: because Charles Leclerc is the top dog. Everyone in the team knows him. For Lewis, everything is new at Ferrari.” While Ralf made some good valid points in his observation, fans certainly didn’t like him scrutinizing Hamilton even before his first race with Ferrari.

via Imago

Shortly, fans took to their social media accounts and launched a barrage of comments against Ralf in defense of their favorite F1 driver.

F1 fans come out in support of Lewis Hamilton

The thing about the title of the ‘greatest driver’ is that it’s subjective. Back in the day, no one thought a driver could reach close to Schumacher’s tally of championships. Well, Hamilton did just that, and perhaps he could add even more. Does this mean there won’t be a driver in the future who would come close to Hamilton’s level of success? This is where the GOAT debate has its limitations, and this fan certainly had a perfect answer to Ralf’s bold claims: “Not too surprising that the brother of Schumacher thinks Schumacher is the goat but I’m glad that Lewis is living in their heads rent free.”

Surprisingly, both Hamilton and Michael Schumacher share a good bond. Moreover, the legendary driver even predicted that Hamilton would be the one to break or come close to his record of winning seven titles. Well, a prophecy or an opinion shared by a legend like Schumacher does have a lot of weight, but the same cannot be said for his brother. “How would he know? He never won one anyway,” a fan replied.

Making a case for Hamilton in how he isn’t past his prime, this fan compared his F1 journey to Michael Schumacher’s. It is evident that, in a short period of time, the former Mercedes star has eclipsed his role models. And by no means will he slow down in the coming years. “It took Michael 21 years to set the records that Lewis only took 12 years to break, and in some cases obliterate.”

Adding to the argument in favor of Hamilton, another race fan jumped in, explaining there’s no way that Ferrari’s newest recruit doesn’t have the technical knowledge about how his race car runs. In fact, the recent slump he’s faced in the last couple of years has a lot to do with Mercedes dropping the ball. “absolute garbage. Lewis and his father were their own engineering and tech team through the whole of karting at the start. You honestly believe he has no input with his engineers. There’s absolutely no way that guy turns up and drives only. No way.’

This isn’t the first time Lewis Hamilton has been challenged by a critic or a doubter who isn’t an established personality in the F1 paddock. While Ralf’s assessment was nothing more than a pessimistic prediction of Hamilton’s run with Ferrari, this fan took this as a serious offense. “That’s the same kind of goofy reasoning that people use to dismiss Hamilton’s achievements.”

If Lewis Hamilton was short of motivation to go out there and prove himself in 2025, now he’s got one reason to stoke that fire inside of him.