The life of a Formula 1 driver might seem glamorous from the outside, but the reality is quite different. One of the major struggles that every driver faces is that they have to travel throughout the year to visit races in different countries, rendering them with no time for their personal lives. Lewis Hamilton recently admitted in an interview that this is the exact reason why he has had thoughts about retiring from the sport.
With Hamilton’s Mercedes deal expiring at the end of the 2023 season, there have been widespread speculations about a possible retirement for the Brit. However, the 38-year-old has said on multiple occasions that he has no plans of leaving F1 anytime soon.
Lewis Hamilton’s longevity is ridiculous 👀 pic.twitter.com/2YF3IOaHxD
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 11, 2023
After missing out on his eighth world championship title by the narrowest of margins in 2021, Hamilton hasn’t had a car competitive enough to fight for race wins. He is adamant that he wants to stick around till Mercedes can provide him with a car with which he can claim his eighth title, to overtake Michael Schumacher’s record.
However, given the amount of sacrifices he has to make in order to compete at the highest level, Hamilton does think about leaving the sport sometimes.
Lewis Hamilton finds it tough to find the balance between personal life and career
Ahead of the British GP, Lewis Hamilton gave an interview to Channel 4 Sports where he was asked about his plans regarding his future in the sport. Hamilton opened up to the interviewer and spoke about having retirement thoughts quite often.
Hamilton said, “I had moments where I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I can keep going’. And that’s just based on just there’s a lot of travel.” He explained that he has to spend a lot of time away from his family and friends. And sometimes these sacrifices become too much for him.
Hamilton spoke about how difficult it is to strike the right balance between social life, family life, and his career career. However, the seven-time champion added that all these thoughts go out of the window the moment he steps into the paddock. Hamilton commented that once he gets into the car, he realizes how much he loves racing. Then, those retirement thoughts don’t bother him anymore.
Things are going to get tougher for Mercedes
Ever since F1 brought in the new regulations at the start of the 2022 season, Mercedes have struggled with their car. The team from Brackley managed to figure out their problems and eventually won a race at the end of 2022. However, they were back to square one when the 2023 season started.
The Silver Arrows have had a disappointing start to the current campaign. But things improved considerably after they brought in some major upgrades at Monaco. However, despite those upgrades, Mercedes have been overtaken by McLaren and the team has to work extremely hard if they are to close the gap at the front.
Lewis Hamilton has welcomed the fact that more teams are now in the mix following the British GP, citing the regs as one of the reasons the field is beginning to bunch up behind Red Bull 👀
Will anyone improve enough to prevent Red Bull from securing a 2023 whitewash though? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/uOnmSHuPRb
— Autosport (@autosport) July 15, 2023
Things will not be easy for them as Red Bull have already announced that they are planning to bring in upgrades at Hungary. These new upgrades are expected to boost their lap times by two-tenths per lap. Therefore, things are only going to get tougher and tougher for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
