Lewis Hamilton said he has no plans to retire from Formula 1 any time soon as Sebastian Vettel announced his impending departure from the sport.
Vettel told fans on Thursday he will leave the sport at the end of the season to spend more time with his family. Hamilton is two years older than the German, and so he would not have been surprised by questions about his own future.
But when they came, he told reporters in Budapest he is not planning to copy his old rival any time soon. Asked if Vettel's announcement makes him reconsider his own plans, he simply replied: "It doesn't.
"It's a reminder that I am in that part of my career that the people I came up with and race with for so long are starting to stop. Before you know it, Fernando [Alonso] will not be there and then who is after that? I will be the oldest I guess.
"It has not made me think about that because I am thinking about how I can improve this car, what the next step is we need to get this team winning again, what is the road map to winning another world championship."
Hamilton has endured a frustrating season so far with his car not capable of challenging for race wins. But Mercedes have been making improvements and are closer to Red Bull and Ferrari than at any other point in the season to date.
With the desire to get back to winning ways burning brightly and a £33m-per-year salary to enjoy, Hamilton is happy to continue for as long as his body and mind will allow. "What are the steps we need to do to have everyone aligned in this sport to do more to start truly reflecting the work we are trying to do in terms of diversity," he added.
"When I talk about fuel left in the tank, I am still fighting for those things and I still feel I have plenty to go. More likely than not, if I stop, I will still have fuel left in the tank, I don't think I'm going to go as far as completely burnt out and have nothing left but hopefully that's a long way off."
