Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, has admitted that he has considered staying in Formula One past the end of next season.
This season, the Mercedes driver has had to settle for being the best of the rest, with his 2021 title rival Max Verstappen seemingly on course to retain his crown, according to DPA. Hamilton, 37, won six drivers’ championships in seven years, from 2014 to 2020, after winning his first with McLaren in 2008.
Last year, he signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes, tying him to the team until the end of next year.
When asked about his future, the British racer told Vanity Fair magazine he is “still on the mission” because the prospect of an unprecedented eighth championship keeps him going.
“I’ll be lying if I said that I hadn’t thought about extending,” he said.
“I’m still on the mission, I’m still loving driving, I’m still being challenged by it. So I don’t really feel like I have to give it up anytime soon.”
Hamilton, now a veteran driver on the Formula One grid, expressed his desire to fight for greater diversity in the sport ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend.
On the eve of the race, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement, but Hamilton stopped short of considering retiring himself.
“It doesn’t make me think about my future, but it is a reminder that I am in that part of my career that people I came up with and have raced for so long will start to stop,” he said.
“Before you know it Fernando Alonso will not be here, and then who is there after that? I guess I will be the oldest. But I am thinking about how I can improve this car, what steps we need to take to get this team winning again, what is the road map to claiming another world championship, and what we need to do to have everyone in this sport more aligned, in terms of diversity.”
(Inputs from IANS)