11/04/2019
NEWS STORY
While F1 prepares to celebrate the 1,000th round in the history of the world championship, Lewis Hamilton admits that it's all an irrelevance to him as the only thing he wants to celebrate is winning Sunday's race.
"I'm not one with birthdays, I'm not one for anniversaries, I'm not one for special days like this," he told reporters in Shanghai.
"It's no different to any other race for me," he continued, "I'm here to do one job, and one job only, and that's winning.
"It doesn't matter if it's the thousandth, two-thousandth or ten-thousandth, it's an irrelevant figure for me."
Told that there had been plans to switch the calendar around so that Silverstone - scene of the first ever world championship race in 1950 - might host the event, he smiled and admitted delight that the move never happened.
"I'm glad it's not Silverstone, because the weather's not particularly great back home in the UK," he said. "I like the Silverstone GP being where it is.
"I don't know why they have it around Wimbledon," he added, referring to the fact that the two major sporting events usually take place around the same time of year, and not a hint at a possible location for the race, the sport's powers-that-be having considered Cardiff, "it's probably poor timing in that respect, but the weather's been good for the last few years at Silverstone, which is great for the fans."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Shanghai, here.