汉密尔顿：只要保持竞争力就继续跑F1
汉密尔顿表示，只要自己仍能保持竞争力，就打算在“可预见的未来”继续参加F1；他被问及是否可能参加新公布的非洲大奖赛。
刘易斯·汉密尔顿谈为何自己“与众不同”，能在“可预见的未来”继续留在F1。
刘易斯·汉密尔顿计划一直参加F1比赛到40多岁，但前提是他能保持竞争力。
刘易斯·汉密尔顿表示，只要自己仍能保持竞争力，就打算在“可预见的未来”继续参加F1；此前他被问及是否真的有可能参加新公布的非洲大奖赛。
本月早些时候，F1公布了在卢旺达举办新分站的计划，该分站最早将于2030年以非洲大奖赛的名义举行。
汉密尔顿是一位长期推动F1重返非洲的人物，因此他需要留在F1赛场直到40多岁，才能参加在卢旺达举行的首届比赛。
这位41岁的车手驳斥了关于他会在首届非洲大奖赛举办前从F1退役的疑虑，尽管他承认如果比赛在2030年举行——这是赛事计划的最早时间，前提是赛道和基础设施能在此时间框架内完工——他将处于40多岁的中期。
“首先，70年来这里从未有过像我这样的人。我觉得我天生与众不同，”汉密尔顿在本周末墨西哥大奖赛前说道。
“当然，前方有随着年龄增长而来、我无法预见的挑战。但在这条路上，在这段旅程中，有太多关于反应时间会下降的先入为主的观念。你看到我上一场比赛的反应了吗？我的反应比这里一些最年轻的人还要快。”
刘易斯·汉密尔顿，法拉利；马克斯·维斯塔潘，红牛车队
“所以有很多工具你可以利用，让自己、让你的头脑保持敏锐，只要你愿意牺牲一切，而我现在正是如此。我无法断言四年后我是否还想继续做我现在做的事，但我现在仍然热爱我所做的事。”
“我仍然全力以赴，而且在可预见的未来我也会如此。”
“我能否在44岁时与20岁的车手竞争，谁知道呢？但在41岁，我能与20岁的车手竞争。所以，时间会给出答案。我是否会在30多岁时还在这里，我们拭目以待。”
不过，汉密尔顿承认，如果自己没有竞争力，他就不会留在F1，这实际上给自己设定了在剩余十年内争夺杆位、分站冠军和世界冠军的目标。
“但我绝不想在失去竞争力的情况下赖着不走，”他说。
“我不想在速度真的、真的明显下滑的情况下还继续开车，我的反应下降了，我的驱动力下降了。我的速度下降了，去年大家都看到了，但我已经证明了所有人都错了，我会继续努力做到这一点。”
汉密尔顿并不是当前F1发车格上最年长的车手，45岁的费尔南多·阿隆索已承诺在2027年为阿斯顿·马丁车队比赛——这给这位七届世界冠军提供了一个明确的例子，表明至少到2030年仍有可能留在F1。
巧合的是，在美国大奖赛之后以及墨西哥大奖赛的备战期间，阿隆索都将矛头对准了一些年轻的F1对手，他在德克萨斯与亚历克斯·阿尔本于第一圈发生冲突后表示“排在发车格后三分之一的车手质量非常低”。
阿隆索坚持了自己的言论，并解释说他觉得这是F1长期存在的问题。
“当你在发车格后方时，赛车更难驾驶，”阿隆索在墨西哥说。“它们抓地力更少，失误也更频繁，因为你没有处于掌控之中的环境。赛车不会以友好的方式迎接你，所以你会犯更多错误。
“但我觉得第一圈的所有事故、所有接触、所有飞来飞去的前翼、所有这些类似的事情都是不必要的。尤其是当你在发车格后方毫无意义地争斗时。”
虽然这两个话题并没有直接关联，但它表明阿隆索和汉密尔顿都相信，就竞争力和在F1中比赛而言，年龄只是一个数字——前提是技术和反应能力依然保持在高水平。
英文原文
Lewis Hamilton on why he is “built differently” to stay in F1 for the “foreseeable future”
Lewis Hamilton plans to keep racing in Formula 1 well into his 40s – but only if he can remain competitive
Lewis Hamilton intends to continue racing in Formula 1 “for the foreseeable future” if he can remain competitive, having been asked if he can realistically expect to race in the newly-announced African Grand Prix.
Earlier this month F1 revealed its plan for a new race in Rwanda, which will hold the title of the African GP, from 2030 at the earliest.
Hamilton, a long-standing figure who pushed for F1 to return to Africa, would therefore need to remain in the series well into his 40s to compete in the inaugural race in Rwanda.
The 41-year-old dismissed doubts he would retire from F1 before the first African GP would take place despite acknowledging he would be in his mid-40s if the race was to take place in 2030 – the earliest the event is planned, subject to track and infrastructure construction being completed in that time frame.
“Firstly, you've never had anyone like me here in the 70 years. I feel that I'm built differently,” Hamilton said ahead of this weekend’s Mexican GP.
“Of course, there are challenges up ahead that I can't foresee, that come with age. But along this way, along this journey, there have been so many preconceived ideas about the fact that your reaction time drops off. Did you see my reaction in the last race? My reaction is faster than some of the youngest people here.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
“So there are lots of tools that you can utilise to continue to keep yourself, your mind sharp, as long as you're willing to sacrifice everything, which I am right now. I can't say in four years whether I want to continue to do what I'm doing, but I love what I'm doing still now.
“I'm still all in, and I will be for the foreseeable future.
“Whether or not I can compete at 44 with a 20-year-old, who knows? But at 41, I can compete with a 20-year-old. So, time will tell. Whether I'm here in the 30s, we'll see.”
However, Hamilton accepted he would not stay in F1 if he was not competitive, effectively setting himself the target of challenging for pole positions, wins and world titles over the remainder of the decade.
“But I never want to overstay my welcome, in the sense of not having the performance,” he said.
“I don't want to be driving around with that [pace] really, really dropped off, my reaction dropped off, my drive dropped off. My pace is dropped off, which everyone has seen last year, but I've proved everyone wrong with that, and I'll continue to try to do so.”
Hamilton isn’t the oldest driver on the current F1 grid, with 45-year-old Fernando Alonso committed to racing for Aston Martin in 2027 – giving the seven-time world champion a clear example that it would be possible to stay in F1 until at least 2030.
Coincidentally, both after the US GP and in the build-up to the Mexican GP, Alonso took aim at some of his younger F1 rivals when he said “the quality of the drivers in the low third of the grid is very low”, having been involved in an opening-lap clash with Alex Albon in Texas.
Alonso has stood by his comments and explained he felt it was a long-standing issue in F1.
“When you are at the back of the grid, the cars are more difficult to drive,” Alonso said in Mexico. “They have less grip and mistakes are coming more often because you don't have the environment that is under control. The car does not welcome you in a nice way, so you make more mistakes.
"But I feel that all the incidents in lap one, all the touches, all the front wings that fly around, all these kind of things are not necessary. Especially if you are fighting for nothing at the back of the grid.”
While the two topics are not directly connected, it demonstrates a belief from both Alonso and Hamilton that age is merely a number when it comes to competitiveness and racing in F1 – providing the skills and reactions remain high.
Motorsport.com ·
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