Hamilton brushes off retirement talk: 'Get used to it'
Lewis Hamilton's answer to retirement rumours in Montreal: 'Get used to it.' The seven-time champion is also rethinking his Ferrari preparation, starting with the sim.
Lewis Hamilton has firmly rejected growing speculation that he could retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season.
The seven-time world champion arrived in Montreal - one of his strongest circuits historically - amid fresh questions about his long-term future at Ferrari following another inconsistent start to a season.
Speaking on Thursday, 41-year-old Hamilton insisted he is thinking far beyond 2027.
"I'm still in contract, so everything is 100 percent clear to me," 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. There's a lot of people that are trying to retire me and that's not even on my thoughts."
"I'm already thinking of what will be next, planning for the next five years."
The comments come shortly after former driver Ralf Schumacher suggested Hamilton and Fernando Alonso should both step aside for younger drivers.
A new sim philosophy
Hamilton has also recently attracted attention for abandoning heavy simulator preparation after openly admitting frustration with Ferrari's correlation issues.
The Briton - long known for disliking simulators - revealed he skipped sim work entirely before Canada after relying heavily on it earlier this season.
"I just decided for this one, I'm just going to sit it out and focus more on the data," Hamilton explained.
"I'm not saying I'm never going to use it again."
"But China, for example, I didn't do the sim for China and it was my best weekend."
Lewis Hamilton, quick reference
| F1 debut | 2007 (McLaren) |
|---|---|
| World championships | 7 (2008, 2014–2020) |
| Current team | Ferrari (2025–) |
| Born | 7 January 1985, Stevenage, England |
| Contract status | In contract beyond 2026 |
See also: Lewis Hamilton hub on F1-Fansite.
Related: Piquet Jr: Hamilton has already become Ferrari's number 2
5 F1 Fan comments on “Hamilton brushes off retirement talk: 'Get used to it'”
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As long as shes used to being an expensive No 2 everythings fine, we look forward to the usual array of excuses from this weekends race lol
I’m happy that he put all those people in their places for making up stuff without foundation, especially since he’s made his stance abundantly clear on several occasions that he isn’t done with racing in F1 yet, so he’ll almost certainly continue until at least next season’s end.
it was only 4 races ago , he was saying hes finished with f1 cause he was so bad, cant believe a word this drama queen says ,And if Ollie beats him in a few races, watch the journos smile and the form drop, P7 seasons end place your bets please Imo
Wrong, he didn’t say anything like that & the only occasion during his time at Ferrari when he said anything along those lines was when he claimed to be useless at one point early last season.
Who cares. What is more exciting is watching drivers like Antonelli leave the old guys in the dust. Hamilton will never retire, he needs the adoration and living in his past glories.