Lewis Hamilton has made a strong statement about his retirement, saying that he will not leave the sport until Formula 1 returns to Africa. The seven-time world champion emphasized that racing on the continent is a goal he hopes to achieve before stepping away from the sport.
Lewis Hamilton talks about retiring from F1
In a recent interview ahead of the first race of the 2026 Formula 1 season in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton stated that he does not plan to retire until Africa is back on the F1 calendar. The last Formula 1 race held in Africa was the 1993 South African Grand Prix. The only other country on the continent to have hosted an F1 race is Morocco.
“I don’t want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there, without getting to race there,” the seven-time F1 world champion declared. “I’m chasing them: when is it going to be? They’re setting certain dates, and I’m like, ‘damn, I’m running out of time’. So I’m going to be here for a while until that happens, because that would be amazing, given that I’m half African,” he added.
Talking about his own African heritage, Hamilton continued, “I’ve got family roots from a few different places there, like Togo and Benin – I went to visit Benin last year – Senegal and Nigeria, and so it’s something I’m really proud of, that part of the world, I think it’s the most beautiful part of the world.”
The Ferrari driver recalled his long-standing efforts to push for F1’s return to Africa. He said, “For the past six years, I think, maybe seven, I’ve been fighting in the background to get a grand prix – it might be longer than that actually. So, sitting with the stakeholders and asking them the question, why are we not in Africa? We’re on every other continent, why not Africa? I know they’re really trying. I think they’ve been to quite a few different countries.”
Hamilton concluded, “The ones that I’ve enjoyed [visiting] the most so far, I loved Kenya, don’t think we’re going to have a grand prix in Kenya, but Rwanda particularly was spectacular – two places I felt like I could live. And South Africa. I think those are the ones that I think would be good places for us to potentially go to.”
