In his sixteen years running career, Lewis Hamilton has seen many rivalries develop. In most of them, he has come out victorious. However, there was a glorious one he cherished so much that he compared it with the rivalry of tennis greats Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Lewis Hamilton took the world of F1 by storm the moment he stepped foot into the sport. He rivaled his own teammate Fernando Alonso in his first season and finished on equal points. The next year, 2008, he got one better over Felipe Massa to clinch his maiden world championship. Now he has Max Verstappen, who he must be itching to get the better off. But who was the driver he loved to battle against?

Which F1 rivalry reminded Lewis Hamilton of Federer and Djokovic?

The 2017 F1 season saw Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel take the center stage for the drivers championship. Fans saw an epic battle unravel as the duo showed phenomenal consistency by winning alternate GPs on most occasions. Hamilton spoke about their rivalry after winning the Spanish GP.

The Guardian quoted him saying, “What I loved about the race with Sebastian is I love tennis and I love watching Federer and Djokovic in the final and what I really admire is consistency.”

“I admire their concentration and how they are so awesome and stay at the limit. I felt I had that battle on Sunday.”

“You can get ahead for one race and be behind in the next. It is about trying to perform as I have this weekend at every single race we have left. That is what I am thinking about.”

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Hamilton built a healthy lead on Vettel later in the season, winning 5 races from 6 between the fixtures in Belgium and the US. He eventually won the championship, while Vettel finished runner-up.

Lewis Hamilton expects to see Sebastian Vettel back on the F1 grid

Sebastian Vettel announced he was going to retire at the end of the 2022 season in July. Hamilton, however, speaking ahead of the season finale, talked about how he believed the German driver will come back. He referred to how many other drivers, including Fernando Alonso, had come back.

SI quoted him, saying, “I was just sitting here thinking most drivers are coming back. You’re probably going to come back. You’ll be back. Formula 1 has a way of sucking you back in.”

“I don’t think it’s ‘a goodbye show’, it’s ‘see you later’, because he’ll come back. I’m going to put my money on that he’s going to come back, just take a sabbatical, like one year, maybe two years maximum, and then come back.”

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As fans, we would love to see Seb make a comeback and perform at the highest level. While the chances of that happening are slim, a fan can dream, right?