Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver says 'lots of people are trying to retire me' as he confirms contract until at least 2027
Lewis Hamilton revealed he has a Ferrari contract until at least the end of 2027 as he hit back at critics; watch the Canadian Grand Prix on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, with Practice at 5.30pm and Sprint Qualifying live at 9.30pm on Friday
Thursday 21 May 2026 20:43, UK
Lewis Hamilton says "a lot of people are trying to retire me" and confirmed he has a contract with Ferrari until at least the end of 2027.
Hamilton joined Ferrari at the start of last year but struggled in his first campaign in 2025 - failing to finish on the podium for the first time in his career across a season.
The 41-year-old started this season well, claiming his first Ferrari podium at the second race in China, but has lacked pace compared to team-mate Charles Leclerc at the last two races in Japan and Miami.
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Hamilton signed a multi-year deal with Ferrari but the length of his contract was unknown. However, he suggested ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix that he is on at least a three-year deal through to the end of 2027.
"I'm still under contract, so everything's 100 per cent clear to me," he said when asked about his future for next season.
"I'm still focused, I'm still motivated. I still love what I do with all my heart, and I'm going to be here for quite some time, so get used to it,
"There's a lot of people that are trying to retire me, and that's not even all my thoughts. I'm already thinking of what will be next, and planning for, like, the next five years. But I still plan to be here for some time."
Hamilton is the most successful F1 driver of-all time with a record 105 wins and 104 pole positions but is yet to add to those numbers at Ferrari.
The seven-time world champion was also asked about how he defines success in an intriguing press conference in Montreal on Thursday and revealed he doesn't think about his record.
"From the outside world results are what people call success, but I think internally, for me, it's just progress. If you're progressing, then you're succeeding. I don't really put a lot of pressure on [myself]," he said.
"I've always said I'm really grateful for the records and those sorts of things, but they're not things I ever think of. It's the things I think of is every day, how I tune my brain? Ultimately I'm really focused on, you can tune yourself to believe what you want, and I'm always trying to work on my inner self to program myself to be moving forwards, not looking what's behind me.
"It's a part of the journey, but not necessarily the most important thing. The important thing is how you're getting up, it's how you're pushing forwards, it's how you're trying to evolve, and just looking forwards, just always looking forward, and never looking back."
Hamilton explains 'no simulator' approach for Canada
After a disappointing Sprint weekend last time out in Miami, Hamilton said he was not going to use the simulator ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix as part of a change to his approach.
Hamilton has used the simulator at Ferrari over the last 18 months more compared to his six seasons at McLaren and 12 seasons at Mercedes.
He did not use the simulator at Ferrari's factory in Maranello before this year's Chinese Grand Prix, where he had his best weekend so far in red and was on the podium, which is partly behind his thinking.
Hamilton explained: "Since last year, I used it every week, and more often than not, I felt, you do all the work on the sim and you get to the track, you find a setup that you're comfortable with, you get to the track, and it's everything's opposite, so then you're undoing the things you've learned.
"Some of the ways you've approached the corners, you have to shift and adjust. The set up that you felt that was good on the simulator is not the same at the track, sometimes it is, so it's kind of hit and miss.
"I just decided for this one I'm just going to sit it out and focus more on the data, so there was just a lot of deep diving through corner balance, mechanical balance, corner approaches, brake balance, optimising the brakes, which have been a problem for me for some time.
"That's led to like really good integration with my engineers, so it's not a tool that I'm never going to use again. I think it's something that for sure we'll continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment.
"Most often what I've done for the last six months, you'd go in after the weekend, and you'd work on correlation, so that when we run it again… but then you go to the next track and it's slightly off sometimes, so we'll see how the weekend goes."
Sky Sports F1's Canadian GP schedule
Friday May 22
1.55pm: F1 Academy Practice
3pm: F2 Practice
5pm: Canadian GP Practice One (session starts at 5.30pm)*
6.55pm: F2 Qualifying*
7.40pm: Team Bosses' Press Conference*
9pm: Canadian GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 9.30pm)*
10.55pm: F1 Academy Qualifying*
Saturday May 23
2.40pm: F1 Academy Race 1
4pm: Canadian GP Sprint build-up
5pm: CANADIAN GP SPRINT
6.30pm: Ted's Sprint Notebook
7pm: F2 Sprint*
8.10pm: Canadian GP Qualifying build-up*
9pm: CANADIAN GP QUALIFYING*
11pm: F1 Academy Race 2*
11.45pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday May 24
3.40pm: F1 Academy Race 3
5pm: F2 Feature Race
7.30pm: Canadian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
9pm: THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX*
11am: Canadian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
12am: Ted's Notebook*
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend. Watch live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
