Hamilton: Leaving Mercedes F1 'very difficult to imagine'

Lewis Hamilton says it is “very difficult to imagine” himself driving for any team besides Mercedes in Formula 1 after clinching his fifth world championship last weekend with the German manufacturer.

Hamilton finished fourth in the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday to clinch the F1 drivers’ title for 2018 with two races to spare. It marked his fourth world championship win with Mercedes’ factory team, having also claimed his maiden crown in 2008 using a Mercedes engine at McLaren.

Hamilton’s title win in Mexico saw him tie with Juan Manuel Fangio for the second-highest number of F1 titles, leaving him just two shy of Michael Schumacher’s record of seven championships.

However, Hamilton said he did not feel he would have to leave Mercedes or try to win a championship with a different engine manufacturer to prove his greatness, and added that he could not see himself leaving the team at the moment.

“Naturally I did it with McLaren, which was obviously a different team, so I have won it with two different teams,” Hamilton said.

“Michael had five with one team? He had two with [Benetton] and then five with Ferrari, right?. So ultimately we’ve both done it with two teams.

“At the moment, it’s very, very difficult to imagine, envisage myself anywhere else. This is my family, this is where I grew up, but I said the same thing when I was at McLaren.

“I think one of the reasons I wanted to move was to go somewhere else, and see if you could do something special somewhere else. I knew I could, but I needed to prove it to everyone else.

“Right now, I don’t feel like I need to go and be in another team to win a title in another team, but you can never say never."

Hamilton announced in July he had signed a new two-year contract to race with Mercedes in F1, running to the end of the 2020 season.