15/07/2016
NEWS STORY
Already rapidly honing in on just about every F1 record imaginable, Lewis Hamilton gives himself another six years in the sport.
Already looking likely to secure his fourth world championship, Lewis Hamilton would then join an elite club whose only other members are Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel. Beyond that, his next target would be Juan Manuel Fangio's five titles and Michael Schumacher's seven.
With 47 Grand Prix wins to his credit, the Briton is just five wins away from surpassing Prost (47) and becoming the second most successful driver of all time, runner-up to Schumacher, who has 91 wins to his credit.
Currently on 55 pole positions, the Mercedes driver is 10 behind his hero, Ayrton Senna and 14 short of Schumacher's record.
Fastest laps see Hamilton in fourth, eleven down on Prost, Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen currently the most successful in that particular department.
Whilst the points system has been changed to the point that comparisons are meaningless, the Briton, with 2,034 to his tally, is the most successful of all time.
Speaking in a Q&A on Facebook for UBS, Hamilton revealed that he is looking to remain in F1 for another five or six seasons, but dismissed any thought of it being to establish or break records.
"I try to think to myself 'what's your five-year plan?' And then set out to do it," he admitted. "Right now I've signed for three years including this one with Mercedes, after that I see myself staying for another three years probably, four years, then I'm going to stop.
"I don't have a particular desire to go on forever," he continued. "When I'm 37 I'll still be relatively young. I want to be challenged by something else. But your views and opinions evolve, so who knows what I'll be thinking in seven years' time.
"I want to be as great as I can be," he concluded, "but I don't want to be defined by someone else's record."