'Lewis Hamilton will be the first to say I can’t compete’
The 37-year-old, whose current deal is due to expire at the end of next season, recently revealed he is planning to sign a new “multi-year” contract with Mercedes to keep racing until at least 2025.
Hamilton did not originally intend on racing into his 40s, but after being denied a record-breaking eighth world title in the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix amid defeat to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, he insists Mercedes “have a championship that we need to get back”.
Speaking on the Performance People podcast hosted by Ben Ainslie and wife Georgie, Wolff stressed Hamilton will retire when he feels he has reached his ‘shelf life’ as a racing driver.
“Lewis is totally mature and conscious about where he stands in his career,” Wolff said. “He’s not being led by his emotions, like I’ve seen with sportspeople that think it can go on forever and trying to hang on to it.
“Lewis is rational and intelligent about it. He says ‘I know I have a shelf life as a racing driver’.
“Lewis knows that one day he will not be the best himself anymore. That hasn’t happened yet. But we’ve been talking about it. He said ‘I’d love to continue…do you think we can do another five to 10 years?’ But this is more jokingly.
“I think he has a few good years left in him and he will be the first one to say ‘I don’t think I can compete against a 24-year-old that is as good as I was or even close to how I was’ and that is simply how it goes.”
Hamilton has many interests outside of F1 including in the fashion, music and film industries, while he also recently become a part-owner of NFL team the Denver Broncos.
Wolff has backed Hamilton to “reinvent himself” in “a second or third career” when he does decide to hang up his helmet and stop racing.
“I have no doubt Lewis Hamilton is not only the greatest racing driver, with Michael [Schumacher] in a way, but he will also be successful in his own way, in a second or third career and reinventing himself,” he said.
