Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton says he enters 2021 “more excited” than he has been in a long time, despite his Mercedes team struggling at pre-season testing – and with question marks remaining about his future in the sport after he only signed a short-term contract last month.

According to many observers – and Hamilton himself – Red Bull appeared to be the favourites heading into the new year after three days of solid pre-season testing, while Mercedes looked to be on the back foot throughout, completing the lowest mileage of any of the 10 teams with Hamilton suffering two spins over the three days.

He begins this season having only signed a new contract with the team just weeks before testing – and even then it's only a one-year deal which will expire at the end of 2021. But asked ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix whether this could be his last year in the sport, the seven-time champ reiterated his commitment to F1, and spoke of his enthusiasm for the future.

“In the current position I’m in I don’t feel like this is the end,” he said. “I think this looks like this could be the most exciting season yet; we’ve got new teams, we’ve got new formats, and it’s [the competition is] closer. I don’t feel like I’m at the end but only in the next eight months or so I’ll find out whether I’m ready to stop or not. I don’t think I will, personally, but you never know.

Doubts over Mercedes’ title defence sprung when reliability issues hampered Hamilton and Bottas in Bahrain pre-season testing, and both of them encountered stability issues with the W12 – while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the pace over the three days. But Hamilton insisted that was not getting him down ahead of the first race of the year.
“It’s massively exciting for us as a team,” maintained Hamilton. “We’re currently not the fastest, and how are we going to work together, how are we going to unite in order to get to where we want to be?


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