Thursday 22 October 2015 18:54, UK
Lewis Hamilton will become the first British driver to successfully defend the F1 drivers' championship if he wins the 2015 title.
The Mercedes driver currently boasts a 66-points lead and the head of the standings and could secure his third crown at the United States GP in Texas.
Remarkably, despite a Briton winning the drivers' championship on 15 occasions, a British driver hasn't yet won titles on consecutive years. The closest any Brit has come to achieving the feat was Jackie Stewart who finished as runner-up in 1972, 16 points behind champion Emerson Fittipaldi.
Should Hamilton retain his title in 2015 he will equal Stewart's British record of three world championship titles. It will also move him joint fifth on the all-time championship list alongside revered names of the sport such as Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet.
However, Hamilton still has a long way to go to catch F1's most successful driver, Michael Schumacher who won seven world championships during his record-breaking career.
With seemingly no let-up in Mercedes' dominance, Hamilton will have the opportunity to extend his record number of wins by a British driver during the remainder of 2015 and perhaps in 2016 as well.
Victory in Russia moved Hamilton joint third with Sebastian Vettel in the all-time wins list and he could surpass Alain Prost's total of 51 and move second on the list as early as the sixth race of 2016. It will take a few more years of dominance to catch Schumacher, though.
That will also give him the opportunity to improve his starts-to-wins conversion rate, where he currently trails Jim Clark and Stewart in the British record books.
Hamilton is now has more poles than any other British driver and could surpass the all-time record held by Schumacher next season.
