Not only can Lewis Hamilton equal Michael Schumacher's seven world championship titles this year, the Briton can also surpass the legendary German in terms of wins and podium appearances.

However, though recognising the talents of both drivers, F1 managing director, Ross Brawn, who has worked with both, insists that ultimately the two cannot be realistically compared.

"They are both massively talented in what they do in the car," said the Briton, "and those moments where they pull something out of nowhere.

"Some of the qualifying laps Lewis has done have left the team speechless," he continued. "Michael was the same, there are sometimes just those drivers who can do that.

"Lewis has deserved it," he said of Hamilton, who is just seven wins away from Schumacher's record of 91, "he has deserved every championship he has won. He has got himself at the right team at the right time and he is at peak performance. He doesn't make mistakes and is a fantastic driver, his performance is exceptional."

For those who insist that Hamilton, like Schumacher, is racking up the titles because he has the best car, Brawn said: "It is not like Lewis is winning out of luck. He is winning because he is doing a fantastic job and you have to give him credit."

Brawn, who was with Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari for all seven of the German's titles, and was team boss at Mercedes when Hamilton joined the team from McLaren, says it is impossible to compare the achievements of the pair due to the fact that they raced in different eras.

"They were different cars, different eras, different competition," he said. "Lewis is incredibly professional, dedicated and committed but Michael had an intensity of detail toward the car that Lewis doesn't need.

"Michael came up in an era where there wasn't the technology there is now," he continued. "Data analysis was pretty crude.

"Now a driver gets out of the car and the engineer has an analysis of the car's behaviour through every corner. When I first worked with Michael we had a sheet with the corner numbers on and he had to explain where he had understeer or oversteer and we would then analyse that."