"He was still irritated that it wasn’t a win"- F1 presenter reveals what makes Lewis Hamilton the sport's 'greatest ever driver'

Lewis Hamilton will join the 300-race club this weekend at the 2022 F1 French GP. The driver has seven titles to his name but in the eyes of many, he's still as hungry as ever.

On the eve of the French GP weekend, F1 presenter Lawrence Barretto reminisced about an incident from Hamilton's junior career in GP2 (now F2). In one of the races, the now-Mercedes driver made a mistake early in the event and dropped down the order, only to make his way back through the field and finish 2nd.

While the result was great and almost ensured the title for Hamilton, Barretto talked about how self-critical and unhappy the young driver was because he did not win the race. According to Barretto, that was the moment that proved to him how great Hamilton was going to turn out to be.

He said:

“What struck me, as we sat on top of the cabinets at the back of the ART garage, was not only how in-depth his self-analysis was but how incredibly tough he was on himself. Even when he recovered a second place in the Feature Race, he was still irritated that it wasn’t a win. To this day, he has maintained that unrelenting strive for perfection – and it’s made him F1’s greatest ever driver.”

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Damon Hill predicts a Lewis Hamilton win at Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend

Going by the theme of the weekend, Damon Hill is predicting a Lewis Hamilton win at Circuit Paul Ricard. The race is expected to be Hamilton's 300th with Mercedes expected to do well on the circuit. The track's high-speed nature and smooth surface lends itself to the German team's strengths and could play into their hands.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Hill said:

“I’m going to go for Lewis Hamilton. I think there’s going to be an incident. We’ve been talking about how well they have been getting on. I think that first corner is a bit tricky, the little chicane thing. Let’s say Charles [Leclerc] loses his front wing or Max [Verstappen] gets a puncture or something like that. Or maybe even on pure pace, the Mercedes springs a surprise. I think in their race trim, Lewis has been on occasion, very, very quick. It could even be Lewis first, George [Russell] second, and Carlos Sainz third.”

Hamilton is on a run of three consecutive podium finishes in Canada, Baku and Silverstone. It will be interesting to see if the team and the driver can take the next step and win the race this weekend.