Lewis Hamilton admits he has questioned his future in Formula 1 as he deals with the stress of staying at home during the coronavirus.
Like much of the planet, the six-time world champion has spent the past few months under lockdown measures which have caused the longest pause in his racing career certainly since joining F1 in 2007.
And having gone from such a hectic schedule to nothing so suddenly, Hamilton admits the free time has sometimes been a struggle.
“I have days when I wake up and feel groggy, I don’t feel motivated to work out,” he said in a video for Mercedes’ YouTube channel. “I feel like, ‘Jeez, where are we going? What’s next? Should I continue racing?’
“I think all these different things, and then I’m like ‘Damn it!’, the next hour, or whatever, it passes, and I’m like ‘Damn! I love what I do! Why would I ever consider not continuing?'”
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Of course, such comments will get attention as Hamilton is now aged 35 and without a contract at Mercedes beyond 2020 so retirement can’t be completely ruled out, just ask Nico Rosberg.
But as for the challenge of lockdown, Lewis had this advice.
“Mentally it’s really about ultimately feeling good about yourself. It’s about finding a way to make sure you love yourself,” he added.
“You have to really be able to love yourself and be comfortable on your own.
“I’ve been really spending time trying to take time for me, making sure that I appreciate me, acknowledging things that you do well, acknowledging when you do well, acknowledging also when you fail and you don’t do it so great. It’s OK. And not being so hard on yourself, all these different things.
“If we are not improving and growing during these days then what are we doing? You’re obviously just wasting your time sitting on your backside.”
While most have been at home during the lockdowns, Daniel Ricciardo has had the benefit of his farm in Perth to spend time in the great outdoors.
And reflecting on the past few months, the Aussie believes the break has only been positive.
“We’ve been able to really knuckle down and set up a real training programme that we never really get,” Ricciardo recently told BBC 5 Live.
“You get it at the start of the year, but once you get back to Europe and the travelling starts, it’s so hard to get any routine and consistency.
“Where now we’ve been able to build like an eight-week block as we’d call it, and starting to see some really good improvements. It’s just nice to have that time.
“I think part of it is the training, and being able to have this amount to condition my body, and I think the icing on the cake of that as well has been we haven’t been jumping timezones, we haven’t been locked in pressurised cabins for three days per week up in the air.
“I think the benefit is going to be really nice and because it’s so unique, I think it was really important to maximise this.
“Who knows, it might give me a bit more longevity in my career.”
