At 37 years of age, and despite his difficulties at the beginning of the year, Lewis Hamilton is not yet thinking of retiring, at least publically. The British driver still believes he can get back to winning ways that have eluded him since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Could Lewis Hamilton finally return to form? After struggling at the start of the season, the driver has been performing better in recent weeks, with a fourth consecutive podium finish at the French Grand Prix. While the 37-year-old has dominated Formula 1 in the last decade, he has been dethroned by Max Verstappen, who has taken over the top spot in 2021 and the Dutchman now looks set to continue his success. 

At 37 years of age, Lewis Hamilton could decide to put an end to his career soon, indeed it was believed not long ago that this was very likely by the end of the year. The veteran driver has an incredible record of 187 podiums, 103 victories, and seven championship titles, and seems to have achieved almost everything.

However, in terms of races, with 300 starts, he could one day dethrone Kimi Räikkönen and his 350. For that to happen, he will have to continue for a few more years yet. A possibility that does not seem to be ruled out at all by Hamilton.

“First of all, I want to be thankful that I have reached this point. I’m still fresh and I still feel like I have a lot of fuel left in the tank,” Hamilton told the media during the French GP press conference,

Following the FIA’s changes to the technical regulations, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have had a complicated start to the season. For the moment, the British driver has still not won any of the 12 races, even though he has five podiums. Certainly a win looks very unlikely with a poor Mercedes car underneath him. A frustrating situation for the driver, who hopes to be able to win again, even if it won’t happen immediately:

“I love what I do and I’m really proud to work with this incredible group of people. I’m enjoying it more than ever. Of course I want to get back to winning and that will take time. I’m sure we’ll sit down at some point and talk about the future.” says Hamilton.

Team boss Toto Wolff made rather an absurd claim when he spoke about Lewis Hamilton’s future. After reaching 300 races at the French Grand Prix, the British driver could, according to him, aim for the next level and reach 400 races with 10 championships:

“We talked a few weeks ago about the duration of our partnership, and the number that was discussed was five to ten years. So I think it could be up to 400 races“.

The Mercedes director has no shortage of ambitions for his driver, who could even go in search of new world titles: “Someone once said that you shouldn’t just win the eighth title, so why not the tenth?”

10 championships have been touted before by Wolff and co, as far back as 2020 in an effort to keep parent brand Mercedes on board with his team. Of course, Toto’s number’s don’t add up because if Lewis completes just 400 races that would require another 4 seasons – not 5 or 10 years. Lewis Hamilton is 37 and would be pushing 40 by the next time Mercedes could deliver a car possible for him to win a championship.