“James Hunt walked away mid-season” – David Coulthard re-ignites Lewis Hamilton retirement rumors, stressing the reigning champion wouldn’t have retired during the Mercedes contract extension stalemate.
David Coulthard believes the Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton contract saga was a farce, and the driver would have never retired. The veteran F1 driver also added that Hamilton would know when to retire – when he feels it from the inside. He spoke about how and few other drivers knew it was time, in a conversation with British tabloid The Sun.
“If he (Lewis Hamilton) truly believed it was time [to quit now], he would not have been in Bahrain for pre-season testing. I think he has inner peace and if he had that feeling, we would have had that announcement that he was leaving. But when he does decide that’s it, I don’t believe he will drive one more lap in a racing car. I very much doubt you will see him rocking up at Le Mans or anything like that.
“You know when to quit when you wake up one day, or even after a lap. Niki Lauda knew during a lap in Canada, James Hunt walked away mid-season.
“In my case, I got the realization at the beginning of a 2008 pre-season test. I jumped in the car with hopes and desires that we’d made a big step forward and it just didn’t feel like it. Having had 14 previous seasons and known how long it takes to develop a car, that was the time I thought it was not going to be a winning year.
