At 41 years old, Lewis Hamilton is the second oldest driver on the grid. Only Fernando Alonso is three years older. Not many drivers in the past have won a Grand Prix in their forties, which leads former world champion Damon Hill to believe that the Ferrari driver’s career is slowly coming to an end. ‘Lewis has accepted that too,’ Hill thinks.
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With his third place at the Chinese GP, Lewis Hamilton ended his unwanted podium drought after more than a year. The seven-time world champion took his place on the podium in Shanghai for the first time in Ferrari red. At 41, Hamilton is the oldest driver on the grid after Fernando Alonso. According to former champion Damon Hill, the seven-time world champion has ‘finally accepted’ that he is no longer performing at the peak of his abilities.
End of career in sight
“It seems to me that he has accepted that he has reached the end of his career,” the former Formula 1 driver says in the Stay On Track podcast. “He has accepted that he simply can no longer do the instinctive things you do when you are twenty.”
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Johnny Herbert, also a former F1 driver, agrees with Hill. “In everything he has done throughout his career, even before Formula 1, there has always been that incredible talent that always shone through,” Herbert compliments the seven-time world champion. “The only thing I would probably say to him if I were close to him is: ‘Be honest.’ There comes a time when it’s not as easy as it used to be, your competitiveness is probably not what it once was, and then you have to say: ‘I’ve had my time.’”
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