Anthony Hamilton has praised his son Lewis Hamilton, saying that the seven-time champion is still very much the measuring stick of the grid.
Hamilton is approaching the twilight years of his career. Most of the grid is younger to him, and no one knows how long he can keep on racing. At the moment, he is the fastest on the grid, but there is no guarantee regarding that in F1.
Any drivers in Hamilton’s age group have either retired or are on the grid racing a step slower than he is. Anthony Hamilton praised his son, but said that he doesn’t know how long he will remain in the sport.
“I’m not sure (how long he will race) is the answer,” he told talkSPORT.
“As I always say to him if you feel fit, if you’re still enjoying driving the car, still love getting in it, then keep going and that’s what he loves, he loves driving the car, I suspect he’ll keep going.
“There’s still a quarter of the (2021) season to go, at the end of the day we’ll keep fighting until the very end, win or lose, it would have been a fantastic season, win or lose.
“Being the elder in the series, whatever it is, are winners, because it’s very rare that you get to the age of 36, 37 years of age and still be able to compete at this level with drivers that are 10 years your junior, so for us every day is a championship win.”
The last (and best) of his kind
Anthony also stressed on how everyone in Lewis’ age group has gone, but he was still in F1 mixing it up and beating drivers younger than him.
“Lewis is the last of the Mohicans if you think about it,” he continued.
“He’s from the era of (Nico) Rosberg, (Robert) Kubica, (Heikki) Kovalainen and all those guys have gone, but you’ve still got Lewis who’s still here.
“He is in the new era with all these new young drivers and still the driver to beat.
“There isn’t a huge amount of pressure on Lewis, but he’s competitive and every race that he competes in he wants to win, he’s going on 37 but going on 22,” he concluded.
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