Lewis Hamilton has brushed off concerns about a premature end to his time with Ferrari, stating that he has no plans to retire from F1 and is ‘in it for the long haul’ with the Prancing Horse. The legendary Brit has endured a challenging debut year at Maranello thus far, and the recent outing in Barcelona was one of his toughest weekends yet.
At 40, Hamilton is entering the twilight years of his glittering F1 career, and with a large gap to team-mate Charles Leclerc forming, some pundits have speculated that he might not be up for the fight. FIA steward Derek Warwick, who will be on the team in Montreal this weekend, suggested as much earlier this week.
“Do I want Lewis to win races and challenge for the World Championship? Yes,” he told Plejmo. “I think he deserves it. I think he deserves that eighth world title. It’s not going to happen this year. And I think if it carries on the way it is at the minute, I suspect he’s already thinking of stopping.”
Doubts were also cast over team principal Fred Vasseur’s future, despite the Frenchman’s squad sitting ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship standings. Hamilton batted off both rumours ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I mean, embedding new people, new personnel – whether it’s a driver or whether it’s engineers or people who run an organisation – it takes time to adjust, and the impact that has is significant,” the seven-time world champion explained.
“So, yeah, that’s not part of the discussion. I’m here to win with Fred, and he has my full support. To everyone that’s writing stories of me considering not racing, I literally only just started, my first year here with Ferrari, and I’m here for several years.
“I’m here for the long haul. So there is no question about where my head is at and what I’m working towards achieving with this team. So there’s zero doubts. So please stop making up stuff.”
Hamilton will be desperate to turn his form around at the circuit where he logged his first Grand Prix victory back in 2007. The former McLaren and Mercedes racer trails team-mate Leclerc by 23 points heading into round 10 of the 2025 campaign.