One current F1 team principal has worked with two of the greatest drivers of all time.

Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher share top spot on seven world titles apiece (Image: Getty)

Williams team principal James Vowles has had the privilege of working alongside the only two seven-time world champions in F1 history – Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. Vowles was a key man at Mercedes from 2010 to 2022, completing a 12-year stint which included Schumacher’s F1 comeback and six of Hamilton’s world titles.

And having worked at close quarters with the two megastar drivers, Vowles concluded that Hamilton had the edge in terms of skill, but Schumacher had a leadership quality which set him apart from every other competitor. He told the High Performance podcast: “Michael wasn’t the most skilful in the car, that was Lewis.

“But he knew how to extract every millisecond out of himself and every millisecond out of the team. He was a leader that would say, ‘I am going this way’, and the team would follow him there. So much so that both sides of the garage wanted him to do well. So much so that one of my regrets in my career is that we didn’t get a win for him. That still hurts me today.”

Schumacher racked up 91 Grand Prix victories during his career but Mercedes were not the F1 juggernaut during his spell with the team that they are now. A podium in 2012 – the last season before he retired – was the highlight of the German’s much-hyped return.

Hamilton has since surpassed Schumacher’s win total, although only two of his 105 victories have come in the last four years.

James Vowles took over as Williams team principal in 2023 (Image: Getty)

And there are signs that a 40-year-old Hamilton is beginning to doubt himself at Ferrari. In anger, he said the team should change drivers at the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this month, and he has fallen a long way behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship.

Over the summer break, Hamilton will be desperate to rediscover the god-given ability which made him so dominant at his peak – the kind Vowles talked about when rating his skill level higher than Schumacher’s.

“Lewis just had these oodles of natural talent,” Vowles continued. “When you go out in FP1, he’s like an octopus all over the wheel. He’ll change every setting on the wheel, near enough, and explore it.

“It’s what makes him incredible. Lewis is this optimiser. He uses data as a starting point, but he’s got a feel beyond anything else for it and he has no issues with exploring the boundaries.”