The clues about Hamilton’s F1 retirement plans revealed after Vettel’s decision

Legends, greats, stars. And eras. As a collective, motorsport is obsessed with all. It’s the captivating stories, stuffed with success and failure, heroes and villains, spread across the ages.

From Alberto Ascari and Ferrari at the start of the Formula 1 world championship age, through Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Mercedes, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and James Hunt. Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and McLaren, Nigel Mansell and Williams. And Michael Schumacher and the Scuderia’s most recent dominant run at the turn of the millennium.

Fandoms gravitate towards these types of stories. It’s clear from across motorsport history – think back to the pre-war era and the gladiator status afforded to Tazio Nuvolari. And that attraction and devotion runs right up to the social media groups fervently supporting drivers today alongside what we might genially term more traditional supporters.

As F1’s 2022 season starts its summer break, we can now pause and reflect. Specifically, that’s on how the final acts of three F1 legends, which crossed, intertwined and really dominated one era, are playing out right now.

Two are now really closely interweaved: Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. Vettel will depart Aston Martin at the end of the season, no doubt in his own indomitable style. In a shock twist, Alonso will replace him at the green team.

The great Spaniard is seemingly so determined to carry on in his quest for a third title, he’s even prepared to imperil the post-F1 life that was being built for him at Alpine in the form of a promised spot on its upcoming LMDh programme.

In terms of F1 sporting greatness, Alonso has the superior record – and, yes, that’s even with fewer world titles. Vettel simply never came close to producing the type of season Alonso had in 2012, by wrestling a clearly inferior car to within touching distance of the crown.

The futures of the other two giants in the post-Schumacher age were cleared up this week, with Vettel retiring and Alonso taking his seat at Aston

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Although his first title triumph splits the two mini-Alonso/Vettel eras, the first of which so famously ended Schumacher’s reign as F1’s number one target, both are trumped by Hamilton.

He will always be recognised as the clear number one of the post-Schumacher period, who is also a leading light in driver activism. How he and Vettel actually helped each other speak up vocally in the last few years will be fascinating to discover in the explanations still yet to come. But we got a hint of it in Hamilton’s reaction to his former rival’s retirement announcement.

“When I talk about the journey that I've felt I've experienced in this sport, and kind of often feeling that it's been relatively lonely,” Hamilton said in Budapest last week. “I would say he's one of the few people that made it not feel lonely. He stood by me through a lot of things.”

"More likely than not, if I stop, I will still have fuel in the tank. I don’t think I will go until I’m completely burnt out and have nothing left. But, hopefully that’s a while off" Lewis Hamilton

Alonso marches on, raging at decisions that don’t go his way, which will provide a fascinating sub-plot dynamic at an Aston team owned by his future team-mate’s father. But it’s Hamilton’s future that is now even more intriguing given Vettel has kicked the end of their era into another gear – having been started steadily by Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen making their F1 exits.

Mercedes team boss Wolff suggested at the French GP that his team leader could go to hit the 400 F1 race mark, having reached 300 at Paul Ricard. On this, Hamilton made amusing facial expressions in the post-race press conference that followed what was then his best result of the season, but that had more to do with how rather cheekily Wolff had served up the ensuing questions with his remarks.

But Hamilton’s response to questions about his own consideration of retirement at Budapest was also revealing.

“More likely than not, if I stop, I will still have fuel in the tank,” he said. “I don’t think I will go until I’m completely burnt out and have nothing left. But, hopefully that’s a while off.”

In that Paul Ricard press conference four days earlier, Hamilton had said “I still feel fresh and still feel like I've got plenty of fuel left in the tank”. So, the question becomes when will it start to empty?

Hamilton revealed in Hungary that he won't carry on until he feels he has nothing left to give, but for the time being still feels "fresh"

Photo by: FIA Pool

His fighting tone at the W13’s launch back in February, still in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi debacle, was striking.

“If you think what you saw at the end of last year was my best,” Hamilton predicted, “wait until you see this year.”

Although the porpoising problem shocking the grid and Mercedes in particular being off the pace suddenly stopped Hamilton’s expectations of another title fight this year, it showed that his desire had been at least topped up by that 2021 loss to Max Verstappen.

Clinching a record-setting eighth title clearly remains the aim. But Hamilton quickly took on the mantle of leading Mercedes’ set-up experiments to improve the W13, even though this contributed to his poor early season results in comparison to George Russell. If anything, though, it seems to have galvanised Hamilton rather than lead him to conclude he should stop any time soon.

In the short term, he can seize chances that come Mercedes’ way. This was clear again in Hungary last weekend. Things might even have been better than second and third had Hamilton’s DRS worked at the critical point in Q3 and he’d been able to join Russell on the front row. Although similar could be said of Verstappen, who produced one of his best ever races even with spin, after his engine issue had kept him from the pole fight.

Hamilton is older than Vettel, but is unlikely, per his own previous statements, to go as long as Alonso and race on into his 40s. But any suggestions he will walk at the end of 2022 were premature even before considering he has been focused on fixing Mercedes’ package for the second year of his current contract.

For a start, there’s the factor that an F1 star wanting to create lasting change can attract greater attention as active participant than out, thanks to the global recognition the championship gets.

Hamilton appears galvanised by leading Mercedes out of the doldrums with its difficult W13 car, rather than being convinced it's high time to stop

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Since 2020 and the resulting findings of the Hamilton Commission into motorsport’s lack of diversity, Hamilton has launched his own Mission 44 charity – funded by £20m of his own money and has since had additional major financial backing from Sky. Then there’s the Ignite charity established in partnership with Mercedes, which proved sport’s potential to represent the push for change when it turned the Silver Arrows black for two years.

But having additional time to enact further change will be the key factor whenever he does stop, which will somewhat negate the diminished publicity.

An F1 star wanting to create lasting change can attract greater attention as active participant than out, thanks to the global recognition the championship gets

So, really, now it’s on Mercedes. Provide Hamilton with a car that can win regularly and if he takes the eighth title denied him in 2021, retiring on top will surely be hard to resist. It is the most satisfying way to end a legend.

But if there’s enough fuel left in the tank, as Alonso is aiming to do at Aston, albeit with a more-than-healthy pay packet, what about turning around another motorsport legend, one that cannot stop harming itself right now?

It’s the summer so we can wonder about the unlikely. Perhaps winning that final title with Ferrari would be the greatest of great endings for Hamilton’s F1 legend…

Recent improvements from Mercedes have helped Hamilton to become a podium regular again, but he'll want to end his career on the ultimate high with a record-breaking eighth title

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images