Lewis Hamilton has had retirement thoughts as he weighs in on Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he has considered retiring from F1 amid Max Verstappen’s dominance at Red Bull. The Mercedes star revealed there have been days where he has questioned his future in the sport with just months left on his current deal. Hamilton’s revelation comes as contract talks continue with Mercedes with a fresh agreement now close. But the seven-time champion is clear that he ‘absolutely’ feels an eighth world title is within his grasp despite Red Bull’s hold at the top of the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. When pushed on whether he could achieve the feat, Hamilton told BBC ‘s Chequered Flag podcast: ‘Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. There are days where you wonder ‘I don’t know if I can keep going’, and those are the days where you’re just tired from travelling. ‘It’s a lot of travel. I think after Montreal we went to New York to Montreal, Montreal to Paris, Paris to Spain, Spain to Germany, Germany to London, London to Austria. Lewis Hamilton has weighed in on his F1 future (Image: Getty) ‘Maybe that was a part of the reflecting but I’m still really enjoying that part.” Mercedes took a small step forward after introducing new upgrades at the Monaco Grand Prix with Hamilton in the top three in Spain and Canada. However, the German marque struggled in Austria after McLaren and Ferrari installed new parts. Last week, Hamilton demanded FIA bosses change rules to stop teams from walking away with titles. He suggested constructors should be banned from working on next year’s cars until at least August 1. It came after Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted some resources were now being focussed on their 2024 car due to the team’s pace advantage and leads in the standings. Lewis Hamilton is yet to sign a new deal at Mercedes (Image: Getty) When pushed on his views on Red Bull’s dominance, Hamilton explained: ‘Ultimately, that’s the issue. For a long, long time there’s always long chunks of dominance. I had it, and I was really fortunate to have it with this team. Michael had it, Seb had it, now it’s Max’s period. ‘There’s no telling how long that will be, whether we can get the car right and fight them back next year, or Ferrari can. Or whether it will be Ferrari next, or us next, or Red Bull next. ‘But that’s why I’ve been saying this recently – when we were dominant, the best years were when we had a close battle with Red Bull and a close battle Ferrari. And some of the other times, where the gap was bigger, that wasn’t the most fulfilling of times. ‘You can’t do anything about that, we just did the better job. That’s where Max is. Him and his team have just done a better job than everybody else and you can’t take anything away from them. But I just thought we need to have a conversation about what we can set it up in the future so we can have title races, the hopes, if possible the pack is closer.’