Lewis Hamilton declares ‘never say never’ to racing into his 50s

As rumours about Lewis Hamilton’s future rumble on, the Briton has stated “never say never” to racing into his 50s. After all, Brad Pitt will be doing so in their forthcoming movie.

There’s been a lot of talk about Hamilton’s future in Formula 1 with the Briton yet to put pen to paper on a new Mercedes deal.

That, according to some pundits, is because he’s waiting to see if Mercedes can turn the W14 into a race-winner, while others speculate it’s because he’s actually considering a move to Ferrari.

Either way at 38 years of age Hamilton is never far from the ‘retirement’ word, with that said to be the Briton’s other option.

But while he has said he wants a new “long term” deal with Mercedes, he’s now given that a duration and it could be a good 10 plus years.

Asked about his longevity in F1 going into his fifties, the seven-time World Champion told the Independent that “you can never say never.

“Brad is going to be racing in the movie in his fifties, so I would be the third-oldest driver.

“There are people out there like Tom Brady [who retired aged 45]. There are different ways you can train, how you can eat, and your focus.

“The technology in our bodies is shifting, and it is just about the mentality and whether or not you still have the drive to sacrifice the same as you did when you first started, and I do.

“I cannot speak for Fernando [Alonso] but I am hoping for more great fights with him moving forward.”

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Alonso has previously stated he hopes to end his career along with Hamilton, recently telling the Daily Mail that he “would be nice to end our careers together, I’d love that.”

But for now talk of retirement is far from Hamilton’s mind.

“It is not taking me longer to recover,” he stated. “It is better because I am more focused on recovery than I ever have been before.

“When I was 22, I was not focused on recovery. I didn’t know anything about it. I was just going home having a pizza, and not knowing what I needed to do the next day.

“I did not have any specialists around me to help me navigate that. I didn’t have the details of what to eat, how to replenish the liquids I lost, stretching, and all those different things.

“I wasn’t doing that back then. I don’t know if the drivers back in the day were that fit. They probably fell off quicker than us because we train a lot more than they did.”