‘Seb is the greatest champion’- Lewis Hamilton praises his old rival during farewell speech in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton is on a farewell tour to thank all the sponsors who helped him during his time in the Mercedes F1 team. He will move to Ferrari from the 2025 Formula 1 season and we will see a new avatar of the former world champion.

After finishing his final race in Abu Dhabi, he flew to another Asian country to thank one of his key sponsors. Petronas is a Malaysian oil company and Energy Supply partner of the Mercedes F1 team. The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur is a very famous building and the headquarters. Hamilton visited the place one last time as a driver of the Mercedes team. There, he met the Petronas employees and answered some questions.

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Lewis was asked who was the best driver and world champion during his time and he gave an unexpected answer. The British driver debuted in 2007 and since then he had many rivals and teammates like Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Felippe Massa, Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen, and Max Verstappen. Out of all of them, he said Sebastian Vettel was the greatest driver of his time. 

Before Lewis Hamilton started his streak with Mercedes in 2014, Sebastian Vettel dominated the sport with four consecutive world championships. His 2013 Formula 1 season is one of the most dominating seasons in the history.

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Lewis Hamilton praises his old rival

🎥 || Lewis Hamilton talks about Sebastian Vettel.

"Seb is the best world champion that I know because he's far more than a driver. He's someone with real passion, he's empathetic and he cares for people."

"He actually is the only other one that's tried to utilise his platform… pic.twitter.com/kIzL6p48Oz

— sin ⁴⁴ (@44britcedes) December 10, 2024

Lewis said, “Seb is the best world champion that I know because he’s far more than a driver. He’s someone with real passion, he’s empathetic and he cares for people. He actually is the only other one that’s tried to utilise his platform for something good.”

Vettel after retiring took social welfare as his main priority and he is helping many people with his social activities. He is involved in many social activities like climate change, Global warming and Deforestation. The biggest reason for him to retire from Formula 1 in 2022 is because of the environmental impact it causes to the world.

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Hamilton also praised Sebastian Vettel as a stand-out person out of all the drivers. He added, “I’ve met so many celebrities and so many people. There are a lot of people that don't take time for others. I think, for me, that makes me… it doesnt matter how well he drives, he’s so quick anyway, we had great races together. But I think for me, we had the best races together.”

Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel are the only drivers having more than 50 Grand prix wins in Formula 1. Vettel also praised Lewis Hamilton for being the greatest driver of their era. The former world champion said, “I think every era has the driver or its drivers and Lewis is certainly the greatest of our era, for sure.”

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