Meet the F1 driver who only won one race but Lewis Hamilton said was one of his ‘most talented’ competitors

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Lewis Hamilton has faced some of the most talented drivers in Formula 1 history throughout his 18-year career at the highest level.

He has raced against talents who have accumulated 20 Drivers’ Championships (without counting the seven he possesses) between them since 2007.

He’s also raced against some pilots who narrowly missed out on such honours such as Felipe Massa, Mark Webber and Robert Kubica.

Massa endured the most intense of title battles with the Brit at the 2008 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, falling short of the top honours by one point after Hamilton’s last lap, last corner overtake on Timo Glock.

Formula 1 has changed an awful lot since then and has picked up traction in various other markets courtesy of Netflix’s Drive to Survive boom.

New fans who are aware of Hamilton’s recent Mercedes struggles may not know about some of his bitter rivalries title fights from earlier in his career – ones which he looks back on fondly.

Robert Kubica was one of the ‘most talented’ drivers Lewis Hamilton ever faced

In his early with McLaren, Hamilton found himself duelling for titles against the usual suspects down at Ferrari in Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, as well as ex-teammate Fernando Alonso in his rookie season.

After missing out on becoming the first-ever rookie champion in 2007, Hamilton found himself in the thick of it again in 2008 against the usual Ferrari suspects, and a surprise candidate.

BMW Sauber’s Kubica had forced his way into the fight after a win at the Canadian Grand Prix and led the championship after seven of the 18 races.

Hamilton bounced back with his greatest win at the British Grand Prix a few weeks later and took it to the flag where he managed to beat Massa.

Sadly, Kubica’s title fight didn’t materialise and nor did a move to Ferrari in 2012 despite signing a contract. He suffered a horror rally accident in 2011 which nearly caused him to lose his life and his career.

READ MORE: Robert Kubica names F1 rival who could win races without having the fastest car

Hamilton had raced against him since they were children in karts and spoke about how highly he rated Kubica as a competitor after he announced his retirement following a heroic comeback in 2019.

“I’ve known Robert the longest, we started racing each other in go-karts in 1998 – for me, Robert is one of the most talented drivers that I’ve competed against,” he said.

“From the beginning, I already saw the talent that he had. I think what’s really remarkable is the strength and the determination he’s shown to get through the incident he had.”

What happened to Robert Kubica after his rally accident in 2011?

Kubica had signed a contract with Ferrari to race for them in 2012 before the 2011 season had even started.

His heroics at Renault had been something special and earned him that drive. One of his qualifying laps at the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix (although there is no FOM footage) has been dubbed one of the greatest of all time.

After his accident, it took him some time to recover before returning to racing in September 2012 just 19 months on from his Rally Andorra crash.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton now looking to become the first Ferrari driver since Juan Manuel Fangio to achieve one thing

He continued in the World Rally Championship from 2013 until 2016 before transitioning to sports car and single-seater racing again.

Kubica returned to Formula 1 with some testing in 2017, sat at Williams as their reserve in 2018 and scored their only point in 2019 as a full-time driver before announcing his retirement.

The Pole’s career is one of the sport’s great ‘what could have been stories’, but the high regard Hamilton held him in tells you all you need to know about his talents.