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Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion, with his last title coming in 2020. The driver debuted in 2007 and instantly became a frontrunner in F1. Debuting with McLaren, a team experienced in honing top talents, Hamilton gradually established himself among the highly rated talents in the sport ever since he stepped onto the grid.
With that being said, it's been a career of success and failure. He's won multiple titles, and he's lost a few as well. At this stage of his career, where he heads to Ferrari, he's already tied with Michael Schumacher for the most titles in F1.
However, how do we rate these seven titles? Which one is better than the other, and which one stands apart? Let's take a look.
Ranking Lewis Hamilton's titles
#7 - 2008
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In all fairness, Lewis Hamilton's rookie season where he finished 2nd in the championship, was better than how he fared in his title-winning season. Driving for McLaren, he won the title on the last lap of the season in thrilling fashion, but this was a year where he made far too many errors.
That's just not the best way to compete when contending for the title, and this was quite clear because the title race shouldn't have gone down the wire against someone like it did against Felipe Massa. While the first one is always special, 2008 was probably Hamilton's worst title campaign.
#6 - 2014
Similar to his maiden title run against Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton's battle with Nico Rosberg shouldn't have been as close as it was. Hamilton's first title campaign with Mercedes was initially plagued by bad luck as reliability played a role, but there was also a moment when the driver was a bit rattled.
The DNF in Canada and the incident in Monaco were some of these moments where it looked like Hamilton put together a somewhat suboptimal level of performance. While the bounceback was brilliant and Lewis was certainly the rightful winner, he should have had it wrapped up much sooner.
#5 - 2019
The 2019 F1 season was arguably the one where Lewis Hamilton understood how a mature approach makes winning titles much easier. Very early in the year, it became clear that he had the car to win the title, but what stood out was Hamilton's approach as he realized he could play the long game and still win.
He made sure he kept his nose clean at the start of the race, and from that point, it was all about letting the win come to him. There were a few races where he was just not on top of his game, and that's what hurts the overall ranking of this one, but the key takeaway continues to be the next-level evolution as a driver for Hamilton.
#4 - 2020
The 2020 F1 season was an extrapolation of 2019 but with fewer mistakes. It was evident very early into the season that Mercedes had pulled off a blinder once again and the competition was going to come from within the team. The ability to nail the important parts of the weekend and keep something in reserve all the time was what made the season such a standout.
As a cherry on top, Hamilton's drive at the Turkish GP was one of the standouts of the season.
#3 - 2017
Looking back, Lewis Hamilton had a few advantages in the second half as Ferrari fell back in terms of performance and reliability. At the same time, one cannot doubt the ability to stand up when it counts. Even though Mercedes did the job by giving him the car to win the title, it was ultimately Hamilton who translated the team effort into worthy results.
The win in Singapore, or Austin, or just securing the title in Mexico were some of the races that showed how Hamilton made sure he capitalized on whatever edge Mercedes could give him in a battle against Sebastian Vettel. This was also a statement as it became clear that Lewis was the one who bet on the right horse, while Sebastian had bet on a 'prancing' one.
#2 - 2015
Coming off his second world title, the Brit was unrelenting and started the season on a positive note. From that point onward, it was all about not letting his German teammate gain any momentum whatsoever.
By the time Lewis Hamilton won the title, Nico Rosberg was mentally defeated, and the exasperation could be seen in the Austin post-race cooldown room moment where he threw a cap at his teammate. This was a title won on pure performance and consistency with the cognizance that Rosberg was just not on his level.
#1 - 2018
The 2018 F1 season is also notorious for the Ferrari-Sebastian Vettel meltdown, but what stands out are some of the race executions from Lewis Hamilton. This was a year where he produced one all-time performance after another, and with the Italian team already in disarray, they could never regroup and fight back.
Be it winning the German GP, the Italian GP in front of the Tifosi, or the lap in Singapore qualifying, Lewis Hamilton carved himself into an all-time great and someone who was deservedly the best driver on the grid at the time.
