Lewis Hamilton wants to equal Juan Manuel Fangio’s five Formula One (F1) world titles but doubts he will have the staying power to try and match Michael Schumacher’s record seven, even if he cannot rule it out entirely. The Mercedes driver, talking to reporters here Friday evening said he wanted more than the four he has now.
“We definitely (he and Mercedes) have more championships to win together,” said the most successful British driver of all time who won his first title with McLaren in 2008.
How many more he might achieve remained an open question, however. “It’s taken me 10 years to achieve this four. I currently still don’t have that desire to match it (Schumacher’s seven). Matching Fangio would be quite cool,” Hamilton stated. “Given that I’m going to be here for at least another couple of years, that’s my goal. To try and at least get that five.”
Fangio, who won all of his titles in the 1950s was F1’s most successful driver until Germany’s Schumacher surpassed the Argentine’s tally in 2003.
Hamilton said he would not like to be defined by the number of championships he had won, but more by how he had driven and raced over his career, what he had extracted from the car and reacted with the team.
“Who knows,” he stated. “When I was younger I thought I would have a family at 28 and I got to 28 and it all shifted. So it’s difficult to say never. “Maybe in a couple of years’ time, I’ll be like ‘Gee, I want to do another 10 years’. I really hope that that’s not the case,” laughed the unmarried 32-year-old.
Hamilton’s motivation to continue has often been questioned, even Friday by FIA president Jean Todt, but there were no bombshells this time from the driver. The Briton said instead that he appreciated every race, knowing that a time would come when he would no longer be competing.
“I love the racing. There are definitely bits that I don’t love about some of the surrounding stuff,” he said with a smile. “But being in the car, and working with the team, there’s nothing quite like it.”
Hamilton enjoyed rare reliability in 2017, finishing all the races and winning nine of the 20 he participated in.
