04/11/2014
NEWS STORY
On the verge of his second title, Lewis Hamilton is already looking ahead to the time when he hangs up his helmet.
"A lot of drivers come back as commentators, but I personally have different plans and aspirations," he told reporters after Sunday's victory, which extended his championship lead to 24 points. "So it's about positioning myself so that when I stop I have something to continue on with.
"There's going to be an undeniable urge to get back in the car," he admitted, "because I've been racing since I was eight years old. That's going to be natural. I remember Mika (Hakkinen) wanting to come back... it's like a drug.
"At some stage, when I retire, I'll have something that I'm also really interested in that is a substitute for racing. So that's something I want to start working towards now. I'm not taking on a management team or anything like that."
Over the weekend, the Briton confirmed that he is no longer managed by Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment, revealing that he intends negotiating his own new contract with Mercedes, the Stevenage Rocket was also keen to dismiss claims that he was unhappy with Fuller.
"My management team was great at giving me support," he said. "It wasn't particularly guiding me, ultimately I made my own decisions. I hired them to help me make the opportunities visible.
"I'm quite comfortable doing it myself," he said of his negotiations with Mercedes. "Nico (Rosberg) did his himself, Sebastian (Vettel) did his himself, there's no reason I couldn't do it myself. Whether or not I will, I haven't decided. I hope to see a long future with this team. Nothing needs to be changed too much."
Asked if he might once again seek the services of his father, Hamilton replied: "Nope. Me and my Dad have a great relationship, he's aware of where I am, and proud of where I am."
Sunday's win saw Hamilton overtake Nigel Mansell to become Britain's most successful driver in terms of wins. The Mercedes driver was quick to pay tribute to his countryman.
"I hadn't been thinking about it all before the race," he said. "Even when I crossed the line, I was just so excited. But then my engineer said something about it, and I thought, wow. To be with Nigel, with those greats, I do feel very proud at what I have achieved.
"Nigel has been very supportive this year," he added. "It's good to have support. I see a lot of negative stories and negative things said from legendary ex-drivers and I always think to myself, ‘why would you not want to be supporting me? We're from the same place'. So it's great to have that support from Nigel, who has achieved a huge amount, who has said I was there, I did it, owned the T-shirt.
"One day, when I'm gone and I come back to watch, I want to be supportive. I want to be seeing the next Brit come through and to be encouraging rather than kicking them in the guts. I want to be inspiring young drivers rather than talking crap."
We wonder who he means...