Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has publicly revealed his retirement plans just days ahead of the 2025 campaign.
The new F1 season is set to kick off in Australia next weekend, with Hamilton making his race debut for Ferrari at the event having made the switch to the Italian team over the winter.
Hamilton is largely considered to be one of the greatest drivers to have ever raced in the sport and holds the all-time records for the number of race victories, pole positions and podiums, as well as the joint record for the number of championships.
However, Hamilton is now 40 years of age, and question marks remain about whether he can propel himself back to the kind of form that saw him scoop his seven world championships previously.
Lewis Hamilton is now a Ferrari driverLewis Hamilton is a seven-time Formula 1 world champion
Lewis Hamilton retirement update
Hamilton's 2024 season saw him drop to the lowest position he has ever finished in the drivers' championship, seventh, and he was thrashed by team-mate George Russell in qualifying sessions.
That season led to a rather downbeat attitude from Hamilton, even proclaiming near the end of the season that he's 'just not fast anymore.'"
Since his move to Ferrari in January, Hamilton has been reinvigorated and said at pre-season testing in Bahrain that it was the most positive he had felt in a long time, prepared for another championship bid.
Due to his age and dismal 2024 season, there have been suggestions that Hamilton will struggle to get the better of supremely talented team-mate Charles Leclerc, but now the seven-time champion has suggested he's not in any rush to claim title number eight.
Speaking about his long-term future, Hamilton told Time: "The old man is a state of mind. Of course your body ages. But I’m never going to be an old man.
"What I can tell you is, retirement is nowhere on my radar. I could be here until I’m 50, who knows?"