Damon Hill has compared Lewis Hamilton winning a record-breaking eighth F1 drivers' crown to two breath-taking sporting achievements. The 1996 champion maintained the 40-year-old "doesn't have anything else to prove" after joining Ferrari from Mercedes over the winter, a decision Hamilton recently illustrated in a TIME interview . He has insisted his primary focus is returning Ferrari to the summit of the constructors' standings for the first time since 2008, in what would end the Scuderia's longest-ever F1 title drought. However, once the 2025 season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, eyes will be more closely trained on how he is faring in the drivers' championship. Some, including Hill's former team principal Eddie Jordan, have contended that Hamilton is past his best and that it was a mistake on Ferrari's part to sign him over then-incumbent Carlos Sainz. And whilst the 105-time grand prix winner is adamant he welcomes the negativity , Hill does not believe it is completely outside the realms of possibility for Hamilton to clinch his eighth with the Maranello squad. If he were to do so, Hill feels it would be an achievement similar to when legendary golfer Tiger Woods battled injury and adversity to win the the Masters, playing through pain to take his first major championship in 12 years, or when Niki Lauda escaped the clutches of death to return to face James Hunt in the 1976 F1 championship just six weeks after almost losing his life in the fiery wreck at the Nurburgring. "We’re witnessing the last chapter," Hill told The Telegraph . "And he really doesn’t have anything else to prove. "But let’s say there’s a sliver of a chance he is winning an eighth world title in a Ferrari… that would be like one of those stories that sport every now and then throws up... Tiger Woods winning that Masters in 2019 on one leg, or Niki Lauda returning from near death. "It would be right up there. Can it happen? I don’t think it’s totally impossible."
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