29/04/2021
NEWS STORY
Title or no title, Lewis Hamilton says he intends to be on the grid again in 2022, indeed, that is why he took part in the recent 18" tyre test for Pirelli.
Straight from the horse's mouth... Lewis Hamilton today told reporters at Portimao that he will be on the grid next season.
Indeed, the seven time champ, who makes no secret of his aversion to testing, admits that this was the thinking behind his recent participation in a day running the prototype 18" tyres for Pirelli.
"I don't ever volunteer for test days, and it's probably one of the first ones I have volunteered for," admitted the Briton, "so I immediately regretted it when I woke up in the morning on the day.
"I was like, ‘dammit!'," he laughed. "But no, honestly, firstly it was at a really great track to test at, so I enjoyed the day and the weather was good. And I plan to be here next year and I want to help Pirelli and help lead towards them having a better product.
"It's something that the drivers all have wished for," he continued, "better performance... and so it was important for me to gauge where the starting point is and what differences I can help with.
"From a driver point of view we have more mechanical grip, less degradation," he added. "So I think it was a good test and obviously it was the first step with the tyres but it definitely wasn't a bad place to start."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Portimao, here.