Mercedes Team Principal compares Lewis Hamilton with NBA legend Michael Jordan

Lewis Hamilton has officially become a Ferrari driver as the year 2024 is complete and we are now independent to call him that. The 7-time world champion after carrying out a successful journey with the Mercedes team for more than a decade finally gave up their '3 pointed star' steering wheel and joined Ferrari to lay hands on the 'Prancing Horse' logoed wheel.

This is a historic deal for the Maranello team and the biggest since signing Michael Schumacher. The Scuderia Ferrari team earned a billion dollars within a day of signing the Brit driver. The two big titans will join hands and fight together for the long-awaited Formula 1 title for the oldest team on the grid.

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Lewis Hamilton = Michael Jordan

But before that, his former boss Toto Wolff gave one last praise for the world champion. He compared Lewis Hamilton with NBA Legend Michael Jordan. He said “It's the most competitive motorsport in the world and we were lucky and blessed with winning eight consecutive world championship titles. 

That wasn't done in any other sport and Lewis won seven drivers championships.” Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton together won 8 constructors titles in a row and 6 world titles in a row apart from one year when Nico Rosberg won in the 2016 F1 season. 

But after the 2021 season losing out to Max Verstappen in the final race of the season, Hamilton hasn't won a single race in F1 and the winless drought ended in this year's Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. His teammate George Russell also won two races making the pair win four races for the Mercedes team.

In the last few races, Lewis Hamilton struggled dearly with the Mercedes car, especially during the qualifying session. Because of that Lewis had self-doubts upon himself as Russell was performing better than him. But in the final race, he finished fourth after overtaking his teammate on the final lap.

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The Austrian boss compared Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes stint with NBA Legend Michael Jordan's stint with the Chicago Bulls. Toto said “Michael Jordan played 12 seasons or whatever, he won six championships- were the other six a failure? We’ve been together 12 years now in this championship and we won eight. Are the other ones a failure?

He added “We finished third two years ago, we finished second last year, bearing in mind we haven't won a race, and we won three this year. So that's not all a failure. That was a pretty good spell for Mercedes and for Lewis. And we will be trying to do it better."

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