London (AFP)

Michael Schumacher broke the record 91 Formula 1 victories "more or less alone" when Lewis Hamilton, who can match him in Germany on Sunday, owes it to his team, believes former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.

"+ Schumi + was driving more or less alone in his car," Ecclestone said in a telephone interview with AFP from his home in Switzerland.

“Hamilton has God knows who to help him by telling him what the pressure of his tires is, his speeds in the corners. It has nothing to do with Hamilton but with everyone” at Mercedes, his team since 2013.

“In the past, Alain Prost, whom I admire enormously, was all alone when the race started. This is no longer the case today,” continues the Briton, who will be 90 years old on 28 October.

Ecclestone ensures, however, that this in no way devalues ​​the domination of the British driver, crowned five times since 2014, six since his debut in 2007, and also left to equal at the end of the year the record of seven world titles of Schumacher.

"You can not say anything bad about Lewis, you can not say that he is not good, that is not the question", insists "Mister E", who reigned on the premier class of motorsport for nearly four decades until January 2017.

- "A little different" -

"How good is he compared to another? He's great, super talented and would be in the top five drivers of the last thirty years," said Ecclestone.

"Is he better than Michael? Would Michael have been better in the same car? Impossible to say."

For the former F1 treasurer, who has globalized his sport and made it a profitable business, the Mercedes driver is not made of the same wood as his predecessors.

“I would say Michael, Nelson (Piquet) and the rest are more or less the same species while Lewis is a little different,” he says.

“The guys I just mentioned wouldn't do things like Lewis,” who collaborates with clothing brand Tommy Hilfiger or writes songs.

“I would say he has no limit in what he does, the way he dresses. If you didn't know Lewis is a racing driver, you'd never guess. Nelson and + Schumi +, you said to yourself: they are pilots. The clothes made the monk. "

"These guys lived a different life, they weren't raising questions like Lewis does," who defends the animal cause, the environment and the fight against racism, putting his knee to the ground before each GP since the African-American George Floyd died at the hands of US police in May.

- "Not just" the race -

"I'm not saying there is something wrong with that," Ecclestone continues.

"Their life was their business, racing. For Lewis, it's not just that, which is probably the easiest way to explain it."

For "Mister E", the only comparable driver would be the Brazilian Ayrton Senna, world champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and died in the race in 1994, of which Hamilton claims.

"In the older generation, Senna is the one who would most resemble Lewis (himself a devout Catholic, editor's note) because of his religious beliefs, I guess, because he was firm about it," he said.

"The other guys, I don't think they would have been willing to die for ideas."

The first and only black driver in F1 history, Hamilton, 35, has yet another opportunity to equal Schumacher's record 91 GP wins this weekend, during the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring ( Germany), 11th out of 17 this season.

© 2020 AFP