Hamilton: I don’t feel it’s time to stop

Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he plans to extend his contract with Mercedes, which expires at the end of 2023…

Lewis Hamilton “In the coming months we will discuss the extension of the contract. I would like to stay in Mercedes. They’ve been supporting me since I was thirteen, Mercedes-Benz is my family. They were always with me in difficult times. I believe in this brand, in its leadership. And I want to be the best partner for them. I believe that together we can make the brand even better, more accessible, even stronger. I believe I can play my part in this process.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year has changed a lot. He broke the foundations, in the inviolability of which I believed. I’ve been thinking about what to do now, but I’m not one to give up. In our sport you rely on the work of many people. And the result of the World Cup, for which a great team has worked hard, cannot be determined by a wrong decision.

But in the winter I spent time with my family, which helped a lot. I gave all my time to the kids, made snowmen with them, was together. It helped me bounce back. Without them it would be more difficult to make it.

Was Michael Masi’s mistake intentional? I don’t know. It was so long ago. I think it was a bad decision making process. Many factors in the ear are constantly saying something. I don’t think he had any intention.

I left it. I don’t want to live in the past. I already experienced that in 2007. Then I was young and saw what happened negatively. But negativity keeps you from moving on. And I want to move forward, no matter what happened in the past. I cannot influence the past, but I can influence the future.

In February of this year we were sure we had built a good car. Our employees put in an incredible amount of work, everyone hoped that everything would go smoothly, but it soon became clear that the machine was not working, that it was suffering from fouling, which many suffered at the time. It was not easy to deal with, we gathered and worked hard. In one race or another the car was allowed to finish second, then it was absolutely uncompetitive for several weekends. And we didn’t know the reason.

We worked on the simulator, but the conclusions we made were not confirmed on the track. You hope the car will be fast for a weekend or the engineers say you can regain three tenths with the novelties, and on the track the car is a tenth slower. There has never been a season like this in my career. But I tried to do my best for the team, such problems can only be solved together.

Every year after the end of the season I think about what I would like to do next. I analyze the past year and try to make a plan for the next three to five years. There are some interesting business projects, but I want to stay in the race. I love what I do. I’ve been doing this for thirty years and I don’t think it’s time to stop. I want to be even more successful.”