Max is the perfect statbook driver. He's the sort of driver for the people that watch F1 from a ChatGPT summary. In Red Bull he's found a perfect team, a sort of team that literally every driver would pray to have. A team that focuses 100% on him and him alone and that one driver layout helps Red Bull fight in ways that no other team has the luxury to do. Max is a brilliant driver, don't get me wrong but its really silly to compare stats like this when his and Lewis' careers are not remotely similar. It boils down to the fact that Red Bull and the way they operate have built this image of an untouchable force of nature when that, with all due respect, simply isnt true. We saw in early 2022 that Checo, even though he was clearly inferior, was good enough to be there and take points off Max when he had an off weekend. That wasn't the case at any later point in Max's career. In 2023 he could've driven a horrible weekend and we simply wouldn't know because there's no standard to hold him to. Bottas, like early 22 Perez, was clearly not as good as Lewis but always good enough to make sure Lewis had to bring his A-game, especially in qualifying. Thats how both Max and Lewis in those times lost some poles and even some wins to their respective teammates because even the best aren't always going to be perfect. I think of 2020 Eifel for Lewis or 2022 Baku for Max. They were simply not where they needed to be on Saturday and got punished for it but set the record straight on Sunday. Thats how the best work but Max since that early 2022 run simply hasn't had that anymore. He now sets the standard for how good we think his car is. If you put a Nico Rosberg, a Charles Leclerc, a Lando Norris in the Red Bull alongside Max, he doesnt win 15 races in 2022. He doesnt win 19 races in 2023. I am convinced that he wouldn't win 2021 and possibly not even 2024 against a teammate of that level simply because they would take too many points off him. Lewis on the other hand could've won 2016 or even 2010 with weaker teammates (plus 2007 but I doubt it because of Spygate). Thats how good teammates work. Max isnt above that and its naive to think that because of how Red Bull operates he somehow is. Michael Schumacher was much better than Barrichello but he still didn't beat him every race either and there was heavy favoring in that team too. Think of 2017 too. You could argue Max was better than Daniel Ricciardo that season and yet he lost. Why? Because he had worse luck, because the two were putting pressure on one another and infighting. Hungary 2017 where he crashed Daniel out of the race. All those things that come with teammates that Max simply doesnt have to deal with anymore. Lewis will forever be my goat because he is the one driver where there are zero hypotheticals needed to grasp how great he truly was. We know exactly how he stacked up against Alonso and Vettel and Rosberg, how he can still keep up with the best of the next generation. Yes, he lost to Nico in 2016 but its clear he was always the superior driver the way Max fans will argue Max was superior to Daniel but when it comes to slandering Lewis things like pure bad luck due to reliability suddenly don't count anymore. Now there will be plenty of people in the comments who clearly have neither read this entire thing nor understood a word I said but despite my regular agendas I dont mean this as slander against Max, I think you'd be silly to claim theres a better driver in this current generation of drivers. This is merely a criticism of how too many people read his stats and use it to slander other drivers without context. Does Max winning 19 races in 2023 prove he could beat Nico Rosberg in all four years of Brocedes? No. Does Lewis beating Nico over four years prove he could win 19 races in 2023? No. I like to slander Max, its great fun, but there are people that actually do think on such a one dimensional plane and it boggles my mind.