Lewis Hamilton comments on his retirement, citing COVID-19 for change in his decision

Lewis Hamilton comments on his retirement decision might stay a little longer because of disturbance caused by Coronavirus pandemic.

The six-time World Champions Lewis Hamilton has opened up about his plans of retirement and points that he might stay for three years longer in Formula 1- a delay in his plans, as he wants to compensate for the effect in his career due to widespread of Coronavirus.

“In terms of how long I go, that’s a bit of an unknown. I would say that this COVID lockdown, after we had the first part of the season cancelled, whilst it was negative in many ways, in some ways it gave a lot of life, a lot of energy to focus on some other things.

“And that bit of time off was really a bit of breathing space. So it has kind of give me a renewed bit of energy to perhaps go longer. The 35-year-old said he wants to ensure he can still compete at his best in the latter stages of his career.

“Ultimately, I want to be able to perform at the level that I’m performing at now forever. But obviously there is a point at which physicality and the mental side can tail off.

“And I don’t know when that’s going to be, but I don’t see that happening in a particular short term in the next two or three years.” He further said.

“So I’m definitely going to be here hopefully for the foreseeable future. And also, we’re in a period of time, I mean, there’s not another driver from my background coming at the moment and I’m conscious of that as well.

“So I don’t know. I’m just going to try and I want to earn my position here. And I feel like every year I come back, it’s not a given, just because I’ve got world championships under my belt.

“I think you still have to earn the right to be here in terms of how you perform and continue to deliver. So my goal is to continue to deliver for as long as I can. So I do see myself going for at least another three years.”

Lewis Hamilton in 2020

The British racer has overpowered everyone in the last two races, winning the first place in both the Grand Prix. Only Max Verstappen has been closely able to compete with him in this while.

Under the current form, it seems inevitable that Hamilton will match the record of Michael Schumacher of 7 World Championships this season, and with the above decision, he will probably surpass him too, considering 2 out of 3 seasons he will spend at Mercedes.

Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas has stood on all three sides of the podium since the beginning of the season and is a big threat to Hamilton’s dominance, but the latter’s skill set gives him an edge over the Finnish driver.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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