Sir Jackie Stewart believes that Lewis Hamilton is not on the same level as the likes 🀅of Juan Manuel Fangio or Ji༒m Clark despite his success in Formula 1.

The Mercedes driver is on the verge of equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 grand prix victories and remains on course to match the German’s unrivalled benchmark of seven drivers’ world titles thꦕis year.

Hami🐭lton has claimed five of the six world championship titles on offer since the start of the V6 turbo era in 2014 and theoretically could surpass both the wins and championship records before the start of the next regulation cycle in 2022.

The Briton has wo♌n six of the opening 10 races of the 2020 seas𝐆on and has subsequently opened up a 44-point lead over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

But speaking as the latest guest on the In the Fast Lane podcast, Stewart argued why he does not consider Hamilton to be among the sport’s all-tജime greats.

"I don't think that you can account that sort of level of success, just 🙈because today there are 20 or 22 races," Stewart said.

"Juan Manuel Fangio is in my mind the greatest driver that ever lived, with Jim Clark t📖he second greatest, even ahead of [Ayrton] Senna. But those people only raced sometimes six to eight or nine races a year in Formula 1. They were driving sportscars, GT cars, etcetera.

"But the world championship now, Lewis Hamilton, or any of the other top coꦬntenders, are doing 22 races – but only in Formula 1. Not in touring cars, not in GT cars, not in IndyCars, not in Can-Am cars...

"The pressure today is much💦 more relaxed. Of course they go to the factory and do the simulator, but that's not quite the same. It's a different world."

And Steward feels the current period𒈔 of dominance enjoyed by the Mercedes team means that Hamilton has an “almost unfair” advantage ov♐er the rest of the field.

"Lewis drives ex൩tremely well, make no mistake. I'm not in any w💮ay diminishing his skills. But it's not the same," he said.

"[Fangio] drove in such a way, it was quite extraordinary – he would choose Ferrari, and then he would think 'well Maserati next year might be good', so he never did more th🍌an a one-year contract.

"And then he drove for Mercedes-Benz and won two world champions🌊hips with them, because they were the best cars in ౠthe world at that time.

"Lewis made a very good decision when he left McLaren at that time and went to Mercedes-Benz. I take my hat off to him for making that decision. But frankly, the car and the engine are now so superior that it's almost unfair oꩲn the rest of the field.

"Now you can't say that, you must take your hat of꧙f to Mercedes-Benz, to Toto Wolff and to Niki Lauda for making one hell of a team, for choosing the best engineers, getting the best money that most other teams couldn't get, apart from Red Bull.

"It's not quite the same respect, if you like, of being able to do it in less than the best car. A⛦nd that's where sometimes there was a difference between the very, very great drivers an🦄d the ones that were very successful.

"It's difficult to say that about Lewis, not being a🍰s good as Fangio was, in my mind. And a lot of people would find fault in that. But I've been watching motor racing [since] I was a wee boy.

“My brother was a racing driver, I was going with him to races and seeing [Alberto] Ascari and [Tazio] Nuvolari and [Rudolf] Caracciola and people l𓂃ike that. Som⛎e of the best racing drivers in the world, I saw.

“To say Lewis is the greatest of all time would be difficult for me to jꦓustify, in sheer power of what the other drivers were doing.”