Hamilton Open To Taking Break From F1 With Option Of Comeback

Sunday, 28 January 2024 at 17:00

The seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton asserted he might take a break towards the end of his career to see if he wants to return to F1 or not.

Lewis Hamilton is now 39-years-old. The Mercedes F1 driver is the second oldest driver on the grid, and while he remains competitive even at his age, his retirement approaches.

From what was understood, Hamilton's primary motivation at this point is getting back to winning and achieving his eighth World Championship record.

By doing so, he would have made history, as right now, he shares the record for the seven World Championship titles with Michael Schumacher. However, he clarified in a recent interview with formule1.nl.

"I never said that an eighth title would be the endpoint. And I don't know what follows after driving in Formula 1."

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Though he never said breaking the record with the eighth title would be the endpoint, the 39-year-old admitted he doesn't feel a need to remain in F1 afterward.

"I don't necessarily feel the desire to remain active in Formula 1 any longer, but as I said before: 'never say never.'"

We have seen a similar pattern with Fernando Alonso, who retired at the age of 37 at the end of the 2018 season. He then saw he still wanted to race and felt like he could still compete, so he came back to F1 in 2021.

As a matter of fact, the Spanish Matador still remains in F1 and is set to compete for Aston Martin in 2024, as he will turn 43 years old this year. Hamilton continued:

"I can't imagine not driving anymore and still being in a pit box somewhere. I would probably think: 'I could stick with it for another year, then I can still participate.'"

The seven-time World Champion admitted he might do something similar to Alonso, where he takes some time off to see how he handles it, but with the possibility of coming back later.

"So it would probably be better to take a sabbatical and then see if I would still like to come back."