Hamilton Rejects Retirement Rumours, Eyes Long F1 Future

Lewis Hamilton is not going anywhere. The seven time world champion cleared up any doubts about his future in Formula 1 this Thursday in Montreal: "Yes. I'm still under contract so for me everything is 100% clear and yes, I'm still focused, I'm still motivated," he declared on the eve of the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Briton, who will turn 42 at the end of his current contract (he signed a multi year agreement with Ferrari which is understood to be for three seasons) assured that he does not consider retirement: "I still love what I do with all my heart and I'm going to be here for quite a long time so get used to it," he stated.

Hamilton wanted to respond to those who speculate about his departure: "There are a lot of people trying to retire me and that's not even on my mind. I'm already thinking about what's coming next and planning the next five years but yes, I still plan to be here for some time," he stated.

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, now a Sky Sports Germany commentator, had recently suggested that Hamilton and Fernando Alonso (44) should "give the youngsters a chance." Hamilton, however, showed that modern drivers can have a long sporting life, as Kimi Räikkönen already did, who retired at 42.

The Briton's seat has been linked with Oliver Bearman, a product of the Ferrari academy and current Haas driver, but Hamilton made it clear that he has no intention of leaving. Bearman, for the time being, will have to wait.

The champion also explained why he did not use the Ferrari simulator before the Montreal weekend: "I didn't use a simulator, firstly, the simulator is amazing. It's the best I've seen, the best group of people I've worked with, but since last year, I used it every week and more often than not, I felt like you do all the work in the simulator and you get to the track, and everything is the opposite, so then you undo the things you've learned."

Hamilton recounted his negative experiences: "The setup that you felt was good in the simulator is not the same on track sometimes, sometimes it is, so it's a bit of a lottery," he explained. That's why for Canada he decided to change his method. "I just decided that, for this one, I'm going to skip it and focus more on the data, there was a lot of deep analysis on corner balance, braking balance, brake optimization, which have been a problem for me for a while," he detailed.

The Briton did not rule out using the simulator again in the future: "It's not a tool that I'm saying I'm never going to use again, it's something we will continue to use, particularly on power deployment," he concluded.