EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW DAMON HILL - If Lewis is not challenging the podium, he might ask why he's still racing

DAMON HILL can remember the motivation dwindling, his desire to get behind the wheel of a Formula One car decreasing race by race.

- Matt Majendie 

“After a while, you’ve had your fill of driving F1 cars, as amazing as that might seem,” says the 1996 world champion on walking away from the sport three years later.

Behind the wheel of a Jordan, which admittedly gave him a solitary grand prix victory, rather than the championship-winning Williams, he was no longer regularly vying to be first past the chequered flag.

Hill is casting his mind back to draw parallels with Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion’s winter testing last week, while not as alarming as a year ago, suggested Mercedes still have work to do to claw their way back to the front of the grid. Should that not come imminently, Hill has questioned Hamilton’s future in the sport much beyond 2023.

“Lewis will respond to opportunity,” said Hill, now a Sky Sports F1 pundit. “If the opportunity diminishes rather than increases, then it will be more difficult for him to deliver those stellar performances. He’s someone who is inspired by an opportunity to win. An opportunity to come fifth is not really sufficient motivation for Lewis. Given his incredible record, he may well want to ask, ‘why do I need to keep doing this?’ if there’s no sign of the summit.”

Hamilton came within a whisker of a record eighth world title at the end of a nail-biting 2021 season which went down to the final lap of the final race in Abu Dhabi before being denied by Max Verstappen.