With the very greatest respect to Lewis Hamilton, in the likely event of him this weekend matching Sir Jackie Stewart's record of leading 17 consecutive grands prix, there's an important point in the Scotsman's favour - even after 45 years.
Hamilton has made the most of two superior machines from Mercedes AMG F1 - and good luck to him. Stewart, however, stretched his success across three seasons while driving for Ken Tyrrell with three very different cars, one of which was an absolute dog. The only race that car should have led was the one to the scrapyard. And yet Stewart actually won a grand prix with what he described in one of his more charitable moments as a "bucking bronco". Or, at least, I think that's what he said.
Stewart's record began in 1968. And that's another thing. This was Tyrrell's first season as an entrant in F1, having stepped up from F3 and F2. Even allowing for times being different then, Tyrrell was the equivalent of Manor, but from an even more modest background operating out of a wood yard in deepest Surrey.
Ken Tyrrell's trick had been to approach Matra and ask the French aerospace firm to build him an F1 chassis based on the taut little Matra F2 car Stewart had enjoyed racing. Then Ken lashed out £7,500 he didn't have on a Ford-Cosworth DFV and had Matra put it in the back. The resulting MS10 won fourth time out and actually had Stewart in with a shout of the 1968 championship as he started this 17-race run at the front.
If the MS10 was good then the 1969 car, the MS80, was brilliant, Stewart recalling this as the best chassis he ever experienced in F1. As well he might while leading every grand prix, winning six of them and his first championship. But it couldn't last.
Matra was about to be taken over by Simca, whose parent company, Chrysler, made it clear that a Ford engine in 'their' car would be about as welcome as a can of Monster in the Red Bull Energy Station 40 years later. Stewart and Tyrrell agreed the Matra V12 sounded lovely, but they didn't rate its chances of pulling the car out of the Monaco pit lane, never mind up the hill to Casino. And, would you believe, no one else - Brabham, Lotus, whomever - felt an urgent need to sell a car to the world champions and their quick wee Scottish driver.
Enter Max Mosley, former barrister, driver and now a race car salesman extraordinaire. He would be delighted to furnish Tyrrell with a March 701 manufactured by the new company Max and three mates had founded in Bicester.
As things would turn out, the best bit of the March was the DFV in the back. That and the fact that the 701 was quick enough to allow Stewart and Tyrrell to run at the front while the competition got their acts together. Not only did Stewart lead in South Africa, Spain, Monaco and Belgium, he also took pole at Kyalami and was the first of just five finishers at Jarama.
The narrative inbetween the lines, however, made uncomfortable reading. Stewart's diary for the first few months of 1970 was an exercise in desperately trying to remain optimistic while quickly discovering that the March chassis was lacking in just about every department.
While Stewart and Tyrrell maintained tactful on the subject, it was left to Chris Amon - having, of all things, moved from Ferrari to become a works driver for March - to express everyone's feelings. By the time the season had reached half-distance at Brands Hatch, Amon's endless patience had been exhausted, the normally placid New Zealander climbing from his car after qualifying 17th and declaring to anyone who cared to listen: "The bloody car's useless. It's just a heap of s***!" And Stewart had won a grand prix with this...racing car.
So, yes, he did lead 17 consecutive grands prix but, inbetween, he also won the non-championship Gold Cup at Oulton Park in 1968, followed by the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in 1969. And here's the thing: he also won the Race of Champions in March 1970 - driving that heap of you-know-what.
No disrespect whatsoever, Lewis. But what is it they say about lies, damned lies and statistics?