Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton admitted on Sunday that he questioned his future in Formula One during the coronavirus lockdown which left him struggling for motivation.
“I have days when I wake up and feel groggy, I don’t feel motivated to work out. I feel, ‘Jeez, where are we going? What’s next? Should I continue racing?’,” the 35-year-old said in a video released by his Mercedes team.
“I think all these different things, and then I’m like ‘Damn it!’, and the next hour, or whatever, it passes, and I’m like ‘Damn! I love what I do! Why would I ever consider not continuing?’”
Hamilton is hoping to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles this season. However, he has been left kicking his heels as the spread of the coronavirus has seen 10 races either cancelled or postponed.
The season won’t start until July 5 in Austria at the earliest.
“Mentally it’s really about ultimately feeling good about yourself. It’s about finding a way to make sure you love yourself,” added Hamilton, speaking ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week.
“You have to really be able to love yourself and be comfortable on your own.”
He added: “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.”


Vettel to Aston Martin an option: Coulthard
Former Formula One driver David Coulthard has suggested that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel could join the newly-formed Aston Martin works team next season.
Coulthard said in the F1 Nation podcast on the F1 website over the weekend that Vettel could help Aston Martin — funded by a consortium around Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll — with his vast experience and could even become a shareholder.
“Does [Vettel] go to Aston Martin?” Coulthard asked. “Take a shareholding and [start] another phase of his career, which could be an option, could be something a bit leftfield.
“There’s so many interesting things that could come into play, and one of them could well be: Lawrence Stroll’s got big designs of future success for Aston Martin, and at this stage of his career [Vettel] could well be a brilliant asset in a team like that, in terms of knowledge and experience of Red Bull, knowledge and experience of Ferrari.” 
Vettel won four world titles at Red Bull before joining Ferrari in 2015 where has so far not won a trophy and his contract won’t be renewed at the end of the year. 
His future is unclear and quitting the sport can’t be ruled out either.
The only possible option to join a top team may be at world champions Mercedes where champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are the current drivers and have so far not seen their contracts renewed beyond 2020.
The Aston Martin team will be formed out of the Racing Point outfit where Sergio Perez and Stroll’s son, Lance Stroll, are the drivers. “We will need to be competitive from the outset. But I have no doubt the team at Silverstone will rise to the challenge and do the Aston Martin name proud,” Lawrence Stroll said last month.