Hamilton dismisses talk of leaving Formula 1: “I’ll be here for a while yet”
Ahead of the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton once again dismissed speculation that he could retire from Formula 1, saying that he is still under contract, motivated and focused on long-term work with Ferrari. According to a report from the paddock in Montreal by the portal Crash.net, the seven-time world champion said that his future is “100 percent clear” to him and that he “still loves what he does with all his heart”. He added that he will be in Formula 1 for “a while yet” and that the public should get used to it. His statement comes at a time when the debate has reopened about how long the 41-year-old driver will continue his career after moving to Ferrari and after a demanding first season in Maranello.
Hamilton, according to the same report, said that he is not preoccupied with talk of retirement and that he is already thinking about the coming years. “There are a lot of people trying to retire me, but it is not on my mind at all,” the British driver said, adding that he is planning the next five years and still sees himself in the sport. In doing so, he sent a direct message to commentators and former drivers who have publicly questioned his future in recent months, especially after fluctuations in results since his arrival at Ferrari. In his latest appearance, he did not announce a concrete decision about the 2027 season, but he emphasized that he is currently not thinking about ending his career.
Ferrari as a long-term project, not a short episode
Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari was confirmed on February 1, 2024, when Scuderia Ferrari officially announced that the Briton would join the team from the 2025 season on a multi-year contract. That move was one of the most important transfers in the recent history of Formula 1 because Hamilton left Mercedes, the team with which he won six of his seven world championship titles. According to the official Formula 1 announcement, Mercedes then confirmed that its partnership with Hamilton would end at the close of 2024, after the driver activated an exit option in his contract. Ferrari, at the same stage, released only brief but clear information that Hamilton was coming to Maranello on a multi-year arrangement.
It is precisely the length of that agreement that is important in the context of the latest statements. Hamilton does not speak about Ferrari as a temporary challenge or the final symbolic chapter of his career, but as a project in which he wants to have an influence on the development of the team and the car. Ferrari’s official profile on the Formula 1 website states that the team is second in the constructors’ standings in the 2026 season with 110 points after four completed races, with Charles Leclerc and Hamilton as the driver line-up. The same source states that Ferrari’s current car is called the SF-26 and that the team is led by Frédéric Vasseur, while Loic Serra and Enrico Gualtieri are responsible for technical matters. Such a framework explains why Hamilton places his messages within a broader process of adaptation, development and stability.
A better start to 2026 after a difficult first season in red
Hamilton arrived at Ferrari with enormous expectations, but the 2025 season did not bring the scenario that either he or the Italian team had hoped for. Ferrari’s official profile on Formula1.com states that the SF-25 was a difficult car to master, especially for Hamilton as the team’s new driver. In that season, he won the sprint race in China, but in Grand Prix races he did not reach the podium, which was the first such season of his career. Charles Leclerc, according to the same source, reached the podium seven times in 2025, but Ferrari was not a title contender and finished fourth in the constructors’ standings.
The start of 2026 brought a different tone. According to official Formula 1 statistics, Hamilton is fifth in the drivers’ standings after the first four races of the season with 51 points, with one podium in a Grand Prix race and one podium in a sprint. Formula 1 also states that in all four Grand Prix appearances so far in 2026 he has finished in the top ten, without a retirement. Crash.net reported that Hamilton opened the season with fourth place in Australia, then reached his first Ferrari podium in China, while Leclerc and other rivals outperformed him in later appearances in Japan and Miami. Such a run does not mean that Ferrari has solved all its problems, but it shows that Hamilton has a more stable foundation in his second season in Maranello than he had a year earlier.
Canada as an important test for Ferrari and Hamilton
The latest statements came ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, which according to the official Formula 1 calendar takes place from May 22 to 24, 2026 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal. The official Formula 1 schedule states that this is the fifth round of the season and a sprint weekend: first practice and sprint qualifying are scheduled for May 22, the sprint and qualifying for May 23, and the race for May 24 at 8 p.m. Central European Time. The track is 4.361 kilometres long, the race is run over 70 laps, and the total distance is 305.27 kilometres. Formula 1 highlights that the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve first hosted the Grand Prix in 1978, when Gilles Villeneuve achieved his first victory there.
For Hamilton, Montreal has a special place in his career. According to the Crash.net report, he comes to Canada level with Michael Schumacher for the number of wins at that race, with seven triumphs each. Despite that statistic, Hamilton played down expectations that he could take the record outright this weekend. He said that the balance of power changes from weekend to weekend and that Mercedes currently looks like the team at the top, while McLaren and Red Bull have made visible steps forward in recent races. He stressed that Ferrari must focus on its own performance and extract the maximum from the package it has, especially because Mercedes is coming to Montreal, in his words, with major upgrades.
Hamilton: Ferrari is still searching for the maximum from the car
Speaking about expectations for the Canadian weekend, Hamilton, according to Crash.net, said that he hopes for a “better weekend” and that Ferrari has drawn many lessons from the first races of the season, especially from the most recent appearance. He thanked the employees at the factory for the large amount of work and stated that the team analyzed where it had been good, where it had not been good enough, and adjusted its processes and approach. His message suggests that Ferrari does not yet consider the SF-26 fully exploited, but rather a car from which more can be extracted with additional work. That is an important difference compared with the part of the public debate that views Hamilton’s results almost exclusively through the question of age and possible retirement.
Hamilton was also cautious in assessing Ferrari’s place relative to the competition. According to his statement, Mercedes is “obviously at the top”, while McLaren looks very strong and Red Bull has taken a big step forward. Of Ferrari, he said that it is “somewhere there” around McLaren and Red Bull, but that the real order will only be seen on the track. Such wording shows that Hamilton is not trying to create unrealistic expectations, but wants to place Ferrari’s ambitions in the context of the current balance of power. In a season with a new generation of cars and an intense development race, the gaps between teams can change quickly, and Montreal should provide a clearer answer as to how much Ferrari has progressed since Miami.
Jenson Button believes there is no obvious reason to leave
The debate about Hamilton’s future gained an additional dimension after Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion and Hamilton’s former McLaren teammate, commented on the situation for the Press Association. According to PlanetF1.com, Button said that he sees no clear reason why Hamilton should not continue driving if he is competitive and if he enjoys competing. He recalled that Hamilton spent many years at Mercedes, surrounded by a system he knew well, while arriving at Ferrari meant entering a different organizational and cultural environment. Button emphasized that adaptation is more demanding in one’s forties than in one’s twenties, but also that it is good to see Hamilton competitive this season and battling Leclerc.
Button’s assessment is important because it does not reduce the question of Hamilton’s future solely to age. According to him, outside noise is less important if a driver has speed and himself believes he is doing a good enough job. He added, however, that the decision to end a career is never exclusively in the driver’s hands: if a driver is not fast enough, the team has to make a decision. In Hamilton’s case, Button said that this year he has shown that he still has speed. Such an assessment aligns with Hamilton’s own messages from Montreal, but also with the start of the season in which the British driver has already won a podium for Ferrari and remained among the leaders on points.
A career that continues to set Formula 1 standards
Hamilton’s future attracts so much attention because he is one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history. According to official Formula 1 statistics, he has so far started 384 Grand Prix races in his career, won 105 races, achieved 203 podiums and 104 pole positions. The same source states that he has seven world championship titles, which puts him level with Michael Schumacher. Formula 1 highlights in his biography that during his career he has driven for McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari and that he has reached the top of the all-time lists for wins and pole positions. That is precisely why every statement about his plans carries broader significance than an ordinary drivers’ press conference.
Hamilton was born on January 7, 1985 in Stevenage, England, and made his Formula 1 debut in 2007 with McLaren. Since then, he has built a career marked by records, but also by long-standing visibility off the track, including themes of diversity, equality and identity in sport. At Ferrari, he is now trying to combine his personal pursuit of an eighth title with the ambition of Formula 1’s most famous team to return to the very top. According to its official Formula 1 profile, Ferrari is the only team to have competed in every season of the world championship since 1950, and it has 16 constructors’ titles and 249 race victories. That historical weight makes Hamilton’s project in Maranello one of the most closely watched sporting processes in current Formula 1.
Between expectations, contract and sporting performance
Hamilton’s message that he will “be here for a while yet” does not close all questions about the future, but it clearly shows that he is not preparing for an immediate departure. According to available information, Ferrari announced his arrival as a multi-year contract, while media reports continue to mention the possibility of extending the partnership beyond 2026. In Montreal, Hamilton did not deal with the details of contract options, but emphasized that his own situation is clear to him and that he is focused on what comes next. In professional sport, especially in Formula 1, such statements do not remove the pressure of results, but they change the tone of the debate: the focus shifts from the question “when is he leaving” back to the question of how much Ferrari and Hamilton can progress together.
Ahead of the Canadian weekend, the key test will not only be Hamilton’s speed over one lap or the result of one race, but Ferrari’s ability to confirm progress relative to Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull. Hamilton himself admitted that the team is still trying to extract the maximum from the car, and Montreal is a track that combines long straights, heavy braking and walls that punish mistakes. If Ferrari manages to find a more stable rhythm, Hamilton’s statements about a long-term stay will gain additional sporting weight. If the weekend again exposes weaknesses in the SF-26, the debate about his future probably will not disappear, but the driver from Montreal has clearly stated that, for now, he is not directing it toward retirement.
Sources:
- Crash.net – report from Montreal on Hamilton’s statements about his future, Ferrari and the Canadian Grand Prix (link)
- Formula 1 – official profile of Lewis Hamilton with career and 2026 season statistics (link)
- Formula 1 – official Ferrari team profile with information on the 2026 season, the SF-26 car and team structure (link)
- Formula 1 – official page of the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix with schedule, track and race information (link)
- Ferrari – official 2024 announcement on Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Scuderia Ferrari on a multi-year contract (link)
- PlanetF1.com – report on Jenson Button’s statement to the Press Association about Hamilton’s future at Ferrari (link)