Lewis Hamilton has already firmly secured his place in the annals of Formula One, but for him, the question of who is the best-ever F1 driver has only one answer.

We'll give you a hint: he wasn't so overly gracious as to name his long-time rival, Max Verstappen, as the greatest of all time, and he even overlooked the legend, Michael Schumacher - though his answer does share a tragic twist.

From One GOAT to Another

Credit where credit is due, not only was he too modest to put his name up there against the big question, but he's also on record as having answered what many 'true' fans would consider the only real choice among lovers of the sport, and that's the late, great Ayrton Senna.

Deemed not only one of the best of his time but a generational talent who helped define the discipline as it careened into the modern era, Senna - the subject of the award-winning 2010 documentary of the same name and uncle of fellow former contemporary, Bruno Senna, who left F1 behind for the world of endurance racing - is categorically among the best drivers to do it by anyone's standards.

Hamilton, 41, said as much without hesitation in an interview with sporting influencer Matheus Gonze, confirming to the Brazilian that he could only ever pick his compatriot as the 'GOAT'.

Lewis has not only described Senna as his idol on many occasions over the years, but has even had the privilege of driving his equally iconic McLaren at his home circuit of Interlagos back in 2024; he still maintains it is one of the greatest honours of his entire career.

While his three drivers' championships may not quite compete with the number of titles won by the likes of Lewis, Schumacher, Fangio, Prost, or even Vettel and Verstappen (just one shy of the German and his Dutch successor), you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who drove as fearlessly as Senna.

Senn-sational, Inspirational

'The King of Monaco' still holds the record for the most wins at Monaco, with six to his name and five of those coming back-to-back, and as well as boasting one of the highest lap-led percentages ever seen, he also famously won 50% of all the races he took part in during the rain, and it took three whole decades for Red Bull wonder boy Verstappen to equal his eight consecutive pole positions.

By so many metrics, he raced like no other for his time.

Unfortunately, it was that innate boldness that sadly will always be intertwined with his career being cut short at the age of just 34, when he passed away after suffering a horrific crash into a concrete barrier during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in Italy back in 1994. He was leading the race, as he often did, but the outcome transformed F1, FIA safety regulations, and racing as a whole forever.

Be it Max, Lewis, Vettel, Leclerc, Norris, or otherwise, countless drivers across the generations since will no doubt have been left just as inspired by Senna's story and how he shaped the history of the great race.

As for the toughest opponent Hamilton says he's ever come up against, while he stressed that "this is a tough question", he ultimately went with "Sebastian [Vettel]", before going on to weigh in on everything from his GOAT footballer and naming plenty of other favourites.

The question is, did he get this one right: is there any other 'right' answer than Senna?