Lewis Hamilton confirms F1 retirement stance with 2027 contract comment | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton is adamant this season will not be his last as he blasted the “people who are trying to retire me”. Speculation in recent weeks has suggested Hamilton could retire from Formula 1 as he continues to be outshone by team-mate Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.

But the seven-time world champion came out swinging on media day in Montreal on Thursday as he confirmed he has a contract for the 2027 campaign. He said: “I’m still focused, I’m still motivated. I still love what I do with all my heart, and I’m going to be here for quite some time, so get used to it.”

Among his critics of late has been former F1 racer Ralf Schumacher who believes “it’s time” for Hamilton, 41, to give up on his dream of an eighth title. While rumours suggesting he could announce his retirement plans at Silverstone in early July were borne out of a Dutch journalist expressing his opinion on a podcast.

There has been no solid evidence whatsoever from Hamilton’s camp or from anyone connected with Ferrari to suggest the Brit is thinking about calling time on his stellar career. He added: “There’s a lot of people that are trying to retire me, and that’s not even all my thoughts. I’m already thinking of what will be next, and planning for, like, the next five years. But I still plan to be here for some time.”

Hamilton started the new year with renewed optimism after a miserable debut campaign with Ferrari. He declared himself satisfied that he had enough input into the design of the car, which he described as having some of his “DNA” in it, and began the year with a decent showing in Melbourne followed by a long-awaited first podium in red at the Chinese Grand Prix.

But that remains the only occasion on he has outpaced team-mate Leclerc who continues to be the lead driver on track for Ferrari. After the last race in Miami, an irritated Hamilton said he would ditch the team’s simulator as he felt it was leading him down the wrong path when figuring out how best to set up his car.

And he confirmed on Thursday that he has followed through with that and has not been on the simulator to prepare for this weekend’s action in Montreal. He said: ” It’s a very, very powerful tool and something that as a team, we continue to evolve. I think since I’ve been there, I’ve had a lot of input in some of this evolution and they’ve been really respondent and made loads and loads of changes, and we’ve just been improving it.

“I just decided for this one, I’m just going to sit it out and focus more on the data. There was just a lot of deep diving on, through corner balance, mechanical balance, corner approaches, brake balance, optimising the brakes, which had been a problem for me for some time, and that’s led to really good integration with my engineers.

“So it’s not a tool that I’m saying I’m never going to use again. I think it’s something that for sure we will continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment. We’ll see how the weekend goes. But, China, for example, I didn’t have to do the same for China, and it was my best weekend.”