Lewis Hamilton may potentially hold more records than any other driver in Formula 1 history.
The seven-time world champion heads to Ferrari this winter as a seven-time world champion but looking to go clear of Michael Schumacher and win his eighth title for the Scuderia.
Lewis Hamilton’s time at Mercedes will go down in history after winning 14 championships together during their 12-season partnership.
However, there’s one record that remains part of Formula 1 history from their time together that doesn’t look like it’s going to be broken any time soon.
It’s hard to quantify who is the fastest F1 driver of all time, with the specifications and capabilities of the cars changing all the time.
Determining who the fastest driver is at any time on the grid is a tricky enough task, although it’s hard to argue against Max Verstappen during the ground effect era.
However, at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, Hamilton set a lap record during qualifying that may never be broken.
It’s a memory that would live long in the memory of any fan at Monza that day had the circuit not been closed to the public due to the ongoing pandemic.
Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking lap at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix
Mercedes were the quickest team on the grid in 2020 and during practice, Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas went fastest in FP1 and FP3, with the Brit topping the other session.
Hamilton went fastest in Q1 with a 1:19.514, before Bottas set a 1:18.952 in Q2, becoming the only driver to dip under the 1:19 mark.
However, in Q3, Hamilton set a 1:18.887 which meant his average speed across the lap was 164.267 mph.
Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton competes during the qualifying session at the Autodromo Nazionale circuit in Monza on September 5, 2020 ahe…
It beat the previous lap record set by Kimi Raikkonen by two-tenths of a second and still stands to this day.
After the lap, Hamilton said to the press: “The car wasn’t great on Friday and we had work to do.
“We made changes going into qualifying which I was a bit nervous about, but it was okay. The speed through the Lesmos felt pretty awesome and I got the clean laps I needed.”
Martin Brundle’s column on Sky Sports F1 after the weekend’s action described Hamilton as being ‘truly in a class of one’, but he didn’t win the race despite his obvious pace advantage.
That honour during a bizarre race went to Pierre Gasly for AlphaTauri which to this day remains his only victory in Formula 1.
He was joined on the podium by Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, with Hamilton only coming home in P7.
Why Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap ever might not be broken for some time
If Formula 1 engineers and designers were allowed to try and create the fastest cars possible, then Hamilton’s record would only stand for a matter of minutes.
However, rule-makers have been tasked with making the sport as competitive as possible, rather than giving each driver the quickest car.
This has set up the 2025 season to be one of the most competitive campaigns in the sport’s history.
However, Lando Norris’ pole lap at Monza in 2024 was nearly half a second slower than Hamilton’s record time.
If McLaren – or any other team – are unable to find that time over the next few months, then the record is likely to stand until after the next set of regulations.
There are concerns about the 2026 F1 ruleset that the cars will be significantly slower than they are now.
It’s yet to be seen whether the racing will be better, but Hamilton might hold onto one of F1’s most interesting records for a little while longer.
Leave a Reply