© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Peter Windsor says Lewis Hamilton is “nearer to” Michael Schumacher than Ayrton Senna, but he’s even “ahead of Michael in a couple of significant areas”.
While F1 journalist and former team manager Peter Winsdor was discussing the similarities between Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, he said Lewis’ driving style is more like Schumacher’s than Senna’s
“I would say Lewis is nearer to Michael,” Windsor said.
“In terms of the way he uses the throttle and the brakes and the steering, I think he’s much nearer to Michael.
“In fact, I think he’s ahead of Michael in a couple of significant areas and I think he’s a little bit softer than Michael in all his inputs, particularly with braking.
“I think Lewis’s feel for the brake pedal is probably better than any driver in the history of the sport in terms of how he applies it and the rate at which he comes out of it.
“That speed of movement, or the slow motion of movement, the suppleness of movement, is just astonishing with Lewis.
“I think that’s probably his greatest attribute. And that of course then gives you such a stable platform around which you can do everything else with the throttle and the steering.
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“I think Ayrton was fairly linear actually in the way he drove, which was very Lewis-like, but his corner entries weren’t as early as Alain Prost’s to my eye.
“If you took 1988 as a good year to compare the two, Alain would always have a slightly earlier turn in than Ayrton, so his corners were a little bit shorter.
“And Ayrton always had that business of the throttle blipping where he just wanted to feel that moment to get the power on, whereas Lewis and Michael never had to do that in order to find that moment.
“So you may think, what made Ayrton so great? Well, what made Ayrton so great was his incredible precision.
“If the average great grand prix driver can shave a wall to within two centimetres, Ayrton could do it within half a centimetres 100 times over, apart from the apex of Mirabeau in the middle of the Monaco Grand Prix, which we have to put down to a lack of concentration.
“For sure Lewis, for sure Michael, for sure Nigel Mansell, for sure Alain Prost, Niki Lauda all had phenomenal judgment.
“But I think Ayrton possibly took that to a higher level,” the Briton concluded.
