Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he doesn’t “care about statistics”, following last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Both Hamilton and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff were criticised at Monza for their response to Max Verstappen breaking yet another record, which many believed would never be eclipsed.
Verstappen’s win at Monza marked his 10th consecutive victory, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine wins in a row which he achieved in 2013.
The reigning World Champion is so dominant currently, that many expect him to claim several more wins this season, with him having the chance to increase his winning streak to 11 races next weekend at the challenging Singapore Grand Prix.
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To go 10 races unbeaten is a meteoric effort, which is why it’s taken almost 10 years for a driver to achieve it.
To put Verstappen’s record into some perspective, Mercedes only ever achieved 10 consecutive wins during their period of superiority.
Red Bull are currently on a 15-race winning streak, which is again, a record for the sport.
Wolff and Hamilton were both asked about Verstappen’s achievement at Monza, with the team boss having insisted that the record is only “for Wikipedia”.
The Austrian was slammed for being unsportsmanlike, whilst Hamilton also stated “good for him” after insisting that he doesn’t care about the stats.
“I mean I don’t care about statistics in general,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “Good for him.”
Despite Hamilton supposedly not caring, he argued ahead of the Italian GP that all of his team-mates are stronger than Verstappen’s.
The 103-time race winner insisted that the Dutchman has never been challenged, something the Red Bull drive responded to during the weekend at the ‘Temple of Speed’.
Hamilton bizarrely continued his argument after the race and stated that “Valtteri Bottas was quick”.
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“Yeah, I had strong teammates,” he said. “Valtteri [Bottas] was quick a lot of times.”
Verstappen’s current team-mate Sergio Perez has in many ways pushed the two-time World Champion more than any of his previous partners, although he certainly hasn’t tested the Dutchman.
Whilst the likes of Daniel Ricciardo had the better of Verstappen initially, the 25-year-old soon got on top of the Australian, which resulted in Ricciardo moving to Renault.