Ecclestone says Hamilton could quit F1 after 2018

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Former Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone says that Lewis Hamilton might decide to walk away from the sport after the current season.

Hamilton's current contract with Mercedes expires at the end of 2018. It's been widely expected that he will sign an extension to stay at Brackley for at least another two seasons.

The team originally said that it hoped to have the paperwork signed before the Australian Grand Prix. However, a month further on and there's still no word that the deal has been done.

With Mercedes uncharacteristically struggling in the first races of the year, Ecclestone suggests that Hamilton might have lost his lust for the sport.

"He doesn't seem to be the Lewis that he was before," Ecclestone told Sky Sports News at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Friday.

"I don't know whether it's me," he continued. "But when you talk to him and see him act the way he acts generally, he's not the racer he was.

"He's still very quick, still super talented, still a super nice guy," he added. "But maybe he just getting a little bit tired of travelling and he's fed up with things."

Ecclestone admitted that he had been surprised by Mercedes' slump in the first three races of 2018. "I thought Lewis would win every race, so I've been proved wrong."

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However Hamilton himself dismissed such speculation. He insisted that he had no intention of walking away from F1, or from his current team.

"I'm fully committed to Mercedes," he told journalists in Baku. "I have every plan to be with the team for the future."

He added that people shouldn't read too much into the lack of a contract announcement to date.

“We were planning to do it after the last race but we had a lot on," he explained. “I was not really around to meet. I had one day at the factory and then I was in China. And then I was in the States.

“We will do it in the near future for sure, but it's not a rush thing," he insisted. "It is really about getting on with it.

“I don't think either of us have that personality to say 'I'm definitely going to be with them next year' and then not be with them next year. So it is just about finalising and signing off."

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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.