Lewis Hamilton says everything is 100% clear to him and that he will be racing in F1 for foreseeable future, with a five-year plan in check.
Having joined Ferrari last year, many predicted that Hamilton will not race in F1 for long. With the 2026 change in mind, a lot of them felt that the seven-time champion will probably race for the last time in 2026 or the maximum of 2027 season, before calling it quits.
After a difficult 2025 season, there were murmurs growing that 2026 could the Brit’s last if Ferrari is unable to rise up to the challenge to help him win his eighth F1 world championship. For now, the Italian manufacturer is in the mix but still behind Mercedes, who has leapfrogged the pack.
Positive start for Ferrari in F1 2026
Ferrari is not just fighting Mercedes, but also McLaren and Red Bull. There is general positivity around the F1 team and both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc sound excited heading into the races, with a chance to win. But the contract talks continue to pop up here and there, especially for the Brit.
It did again in the F1 Canadian GP press conference, where Hamilton brushed aside retirement. He noted that everything is 100% clear to him and that he will be racing for ‘some time’, with a five-year plan already in his mind instead of any retirement ideas that keeps floating.
Hamilton clear about F1 future, no retirement
“Yep, I’m still in contract, so everything is 100% clear to me,” said Hamilton. “And yeah, I’m still focused, I’m still motivated, I still love what I do with all my heart, and I’m going to be here for quite some time, so get used to it.
“There’s a lot of people that are trying to retire me and that’s not even on my thoughts. I’m already thinking of what will be next, planning for the next five years. But yeah, still plan to be here for some time,” summed up Hamilton.
Ferrari with best F1 simulator as per Hamilton
In his long career in F1, the Brit shared a snippet about the simulator work that he does and why he keeps himself away from it largely. Firstly, he praised the simulator at Maranello for being the best of the lot that he has used, when compared to ones at McLaren and Mercedes.
“No, I didn’t use a sim,” started Hamilton, when asked about his simulator use. “Firstly, the sim is amazing. It’s an amazing space to work in. It’s the best sim I’ve ever seen and best group of people that I’ve known, a large team of people that I get to work with there.
“So, a day at the sim is actually pretty incredible. It is a very powerful tool and something that as a team we continue to evolve. I think since I’ve been there, I’ve had a lot of input in some of this evolution and they’ve been really respondent and made loads and loads of changes, and we’ve just been improving it.
McLaren, Mercedes F1 simulators
“With simulation, I feel that the goalpost is always moving. So, I started driving the simulator in 1997, the first simulator, I would say, at McLaren. The cockpit didn’t move but we had force feedback in the steering, and I remember it was at Woking, at McLaren’s old factory.
“And then when it moved to the first real gen, they let me sometimes use it when I was in GP2. And then McLaren, we used it relatively often. Didn’t particularly enjoy it, because they were kind of long days and a lot of laps. There’s a point at which you stop learning when you’re doing so many laps, for me personally.
“And then when I joined Mercedes, they were quite far off with the sim at the time. I didn’t use it in all the championships that we won, barely used the simulator, very rarely,” summed up Hamilton, who noted that he upped his simulator use in 2020 and 2021 F1 seasons.
Sim set-up only translated once in success on track
In all his career, he claims it was only once or twice that the set-up he used in the simulator translated to a sound result on track, which is one reason why he avoids using simulator. “Then in 2020, maybe 2021, I started to use it a little bit more,” continued Hamilton.
“I think there’s only ever been really one time through all the years that I’ve used the sim in these 20 years that the set-up that I had on the sim was the exact set-up I used in qualifying and qualified pole, and that was Singapore 2012, maybe, I think, something like that.
“So, then all the other times it’s not quite perfect. But as I said, it is a powerful tool,” summed up Hamilton, who revealed that since last year he started using simulator again. But in most cases, the set-up he used in the simulator did not translate in good results on track.
Hit and miss with F1 simulators
It is a hit and miss situation, which is why he has started to focus a lot more on going through the data end analysing it with his engineers. He didn’t do simulator session to prepare for China in F1 2026 and it was his best weekend from the four done so far.
“I just think since the last year I used it every week and more often than not I felt you do all the work on the sim, and you get to the track, you find a set-up that you’re comfortable with, you get to the track and everything is opposite,” said Hamilton.
“So, then you’re undoing the things you’ve learned, some of the ways you’ve approached the corners you have to shift and adjust, set-up that you felt that was good on the simulator is not the same at the track. Sometimes it is, and so it’s kind of hit and miss. So, I just decided for this one, I’m just going to sit it out and focus more on the data.
Hamilton focused on data analysis than F1 sim use
“So, there was just a lot of deep diving on through-corner balance, mechanical balance, corner approaches, brake balance, optimising the brakes, which have been a problem for me for some time. That’s led to really good integration with my engineers. It’s not a tool that… I’m not saying I’m never going to use again.
“I think it’s something that, for sure, we’ll continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment. But yeah, so most often what I’ve done for the last six months, you’d go in after the weekend and you’d work on correlation, and so that when we run it again.
“But then you go to the next track and it’s slightly off sometimes. So, we’ll see how the weekend goes. But China, for example, I didn’t do the sim for China and it was my best weekend,” summed up Hamilton.
