Lewis Hamilton has no intention of hanging up his helmet anytime soon, but the Briton admits that he can't race on forever and calling time on his life in F1 will be painful.
Hamilton is contracted to Mercedes for 2023, and team boss Toto Wolff is "absolutely sure" the seven-time world champion will put pen to paper and extend his collaboration with the Brackley squad beyond next season.
"Certainly, Lewis' contract is one of the topics that we will tackle over the winter," Wolff told F1's Beyond the Grid podcast. "There's no firm deadline.
"Absolutely, Lewis is part of the team and the team is part of Lewis. [There is] no reason to [for that to] not continue. I think one of his strengths is that he's always hungry, always eager.
"He's a great sportsman but he's also someone who is extremely driven and determined."
©Instagram/LewisHamilton
However, despite his insatiable will to win, Hamilton knows that he cannot continue to grace the grid in F1 forever.
"It’s not forever but something inside is telling me: ‘you’re not done yet, you’ve got to keep pushing’", the 37-year-old told The New York Times recently. "‘You’ve got more to do, more to achieve'.
"It’s going to be hard one day, stopping racing. I’ve done it for 30 years and it will be 30-plus years when I do eventually stop.
"Luckily for me, right this second, it’s not now."
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Hamilton revealed that his family is somewhat split on the longevity of his career.
"My dad and my brother, they’re like, ‘Yeah, keep racing forever,’ because they are racers," he said.
"For my mum and my sister? I can definitely sense they want me to do whatever I want to do.
"They can also see how tiring it is, that it weighs heavy on you. Sometimes when I go around to my sister’s house I just pass out on the couch!"
While Hamilton's drive and motivation remain intact – even after a massively difficult season in which he failed to win a single race, a first since his debut in the sport in 2007 – the 103-time Grand Prix winner aspires to one day settle down and raise a family.
"There’s no doubt that I love what I do," he said. "I really do love the challenge every weekend, how we, as a team, show up every weekend.
"There’s a reason why I have as much energy as I do, that I’m still able to train with the intensity that I do and have the dedication that I do.
"At some stage, I will want to have a family and that will be my full focus, but right now, being in Formula 1 with Mercedes is it."
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