Hamilton: "I've thought about retirement and the future..."

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Lewis Hamilton admits that he's been considering retiring from motorsport. But before his rivals get too excited, the Mercedes driver also insisted that he's currently enjoying Formula 1 more than ever before - and that he will around the paddock for some time yet.

The 32-year-old was a guest on this week's The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV, where he was questioned about his future plans.

"There's been talks about it and I definitely have thought about it," he told the presenter when asked about whether he was considering quitting the sport. "There's been times when I've thought there's other things I want to do.

"But then we're in the heat of this battle right now and I'm loving it more than ever."

Following the Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton has a 28 point lead in the world championship over Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel. Even so, Hamilton knows he can't afford to put a foot wrong in the remaining six races of the season.

"The training, all the work that you put into something, and then you get to really show your abilities," he said. "It's the greatest feeling ever!

"I'm going to keep going for as long as I can and see what I can do."

"Honestly, I'm just super focused," he said, adding that he currently didn't even have time for a serious relationship since his highly-publicised split with singer Nicole Scherzinger.

"Of course, the occasional date here and there," he noted. "But I'm just trying to win the championship. I have a lot of projects that I'm working on as well."

Hamilton does his part to save the planet... and himself

Hamilton's off-track passion for music and fashion is well known. The three-time world champion was recently at London Fashion Week, where he was photographed with PSG soccer star Neymar and Hungarian model Barbara Palvin.

He has been single-minded about racing since he was eight years old, but says it is also important to have other interests.

"For these past five, six years I've really been trying to work on what I enjoy outside of the sport," he said. "So that when I stop I can walk away and still have other things.

"Every year I'm always assessing the plan."

But while a future career change might be on Hamilton's mind, he's not taking his current enviable status for granted.

"When you're at Formula 1 you're in the spotlight, you're at the top of the world," he said. "Then it's downhill from then on.

"You don't earn the same money. There's not a huge amount of opportunities because you've been in that world for so long."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.