Lewis Hamilton reached a milestone 300 Grand Prix starts last weekend in France, but the seven-time world says he still has "plenty of fuel in the tank" to power his F1 future.
At Paul Ricard, Hamilton celebrated becoming the sixth driver in F1 history to hit the 300 landmark with a runner-up spot in the French Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, when asked if he sees Hamilton reaching a record 400 races in his career - or 50 more than current record holder Kimi Raikkonen - the Austrian commented that the Briton could race on for five or ten more years!
It was a tongue-in-cheek response from Wolff but one that nevertheless suggested that F1's most prolific driver could be on the grid beyond 2023, or the end of his current contract with Mercedes.
"That's a lot of races!" said Hamilton, responding to Wolff's outlandish prediction.
"I firstly just want to be grateful to get to this point. But I still feel fresh and still feel like I've got plenty of fuel left in the tank.
"I'm enjoying what I'm doing, I'm really proud and am enjoying arriving every day and working with this incredible group of people.
"I'm also enjoying working with the sport more than ever.
"We've got some great people leading the sport and having great conversations about the directions we are going as a sport, so I'm enjoying it more than ever."
But Hamilton's primary ambition in the short term is to steer his team and himself back into the winner's circle.
"Of course, I want to get back to winning ways and that’s going to take time, but I’m sure we’ll sit down at some stage and talk about the future," he said.
"But with our team, I always want to continue to be building. It’s one thing having races, but it’s also continuing the work that we do outside and doing more. And we will."
©Mercedes
Returning to the top step of the podium, on merit, remains a step-by-step process for Mercedes and one that is often frustrating to endure for the team and its drivers.
"It’s just like, you do a lap and then they’re like ‘you’re 1.7 off’ and then you do a really good lap and you’re 1.1s off and you’re like ‘wow’," Hamilton explained.
"There’s nothing I can do in my power to change that, and of course everyone’s working as hard as they can.
"Each weekend we come with little bits to try and improve and sometimes it just doesn’t make a difference. For sure that’s difficult for everyone.
"It’s just constantly just chipping away at it. Unfortunately, you can’t take big leaps at the moment. But who knows, maybe one big leap will come at some stage and we’ll be right there.
"Hopefully later on this year we get somewhere better, but next year’s car is the one we can fight with."
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