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Lewis Hamilton is seriously considering giving time to his long and brilliant Formula One career at the end of the season. The world champion made the claim after victory in Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, suggesting that at the age of 35 he is ready to focus on “family and that sort of thing.”
The victory at Imola was the ninth of the season for Hamilton and brought him ever closer to equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of seven F1 titles, having already surpassed the German’s record for Formula One racing victories. The victory also secured a seventh consecutive constructors’ title for Mercedes, with whom Hamilton has yet to agree a new contract. It’s a source of uncertainty for the team, which escalated significantly on Sunday after team principal Toto Wolff confirmed that while he will still be at Mercedes next year, he plans to leave his current position. Hamilton and Wolff joined Mercedes in 2013 and, when asked if Wolff’s decision would have any impact, Hamilton was forthright.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be here next year so it’s not a concern for me,” he said. “We have a lot of deep conversations, Toto and I, so I am very aware of where he is mentally, and I think we share a lot and carry a lot of weight together. I’ve been here a long, long time. I can definitely understand wanting to go back a bit and spend more time with family and that sort of thing. “
This is Hamilton’s fourteenth season in F1. He has suggested this season that signing a new contract with Mercedes was a formality, a matter of finding time to work out the details. However, no deal has yet been made.
“Well, it’s November and Christmas is not that far off,” he said. “I feel great, I still feel very strong, I feel like I can keep going for many months. There are several things that remain on my mind. I’d like to be here next year, but there’s no guarantee of that for sure. There are many things that excite me from beyond F1, so time will tell ”.
Wolff admitted that as things stood, he couldn’t be sure Hamilton would keep running, although he was optimistic that he would. “Nothing is safe,” he said. “You could, like Niki Lauda in the ’70s, wake up one morning on a track and say’ I’m just not having fun anymore. ‘ I think that can happen to anyone. But we want to continue this journey, we are not finished ”.
