Ha, to think Lewis Hamilton once declared that he would be gone from Formula One by now, not hanging about as a grandad of the sport. 

It was easy to say back then when he was young, and 41 seemed as old as Methuselah.

But he cannot give it up, as his comments in Mexico City indicated, remarks that were Muhammad Ali-esque in their sense of self-destiny.

'Firstly, you've never had anyone like me in the 70 years (of F1),' he argued, speaking in all modesty. 'I feel like I am built differently.

'Of course, there are challenges ahead which come with age that I can't foresee. But along this journey there have been so many preconceived ideas, like that your reaction time drops off. 

'Did you see my reaction time in the last race (in Austin)? It was faster than some of the youngest people here. 

'As long as you are willing to sacrifice everything, which I am right now (you can go on). I can't say in four years whether I will want to continue doing what I'm doing, but I am still all in. I will be for the foreseeable future.'

For all the Met Gala and the rap songs and the fashion labels he has courted, it seems to me that Hamilton remains wedded to the only life he has really felt at ease in – motor racing, and, like so many sportsmen, he cannot embrace an existence without his essential ingredient.

What would he do if he stopped? Who would he be? Where would he make his money? He doesn't need money, but that is not the point.

But for his need to race, why would he keep hopping on and off planes, opening suitcases, staying in hotel rooms? Yes, he has factotums to help escort him, but that slog across 20 years must be strenuous.

His latest landmark ambition is to race in Africa after Formula One signed a ten-year deal in Rwanda, taking the sport back to the continent for the first time since apartheid ended. But that will not be until the early 2030s, which would make Hamilton minimally 45, probably older because the race is more likely to be staged no sooner than 2031, possibly a year later, once they have built the track outside the capital Kigali (it all sounds very vague: will it even be on, a cynic might wonder?).

Fernando Alonso is cited as a precedent for longevity. The Spaniard is 45 and has signed a new deal with Aston Martin this year. To pick from an earlier generation, Juan Manuel Fangio was 46 when he clinched the last of his five world titles in 1957.

Is Lewis quite the driver he was? Well, on his day in the right equipment, he is still fantastically good. How could he not be given the talents with which he was blessed? But, surely, he is not quite up to the best of his roaring youth, if only neutered by two, three, four or five per cent.

How, otherwise, could he have lost to George Russell in two out of their three seasons together? Was Lewis not meant to be the GOAT, whatever he thought of the ground-effect cars? How did Charles Leclerc pound him so roundly last year in the same red machine?

Hamilton, for the record, lies third in the current championship fight, one point behind Russell, five ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and in front of Leclerc. This season has been a vast advance on 2025, without doubt, his victory in Barcelona the clear highlight.

Ferrari, however, should not keep him on as a favour to extend his career as if operating an old folks' home. And this Alonso parallel only stands up to so much scrutiny. What evidence is there that he is fully the operator he once was? Still, like Lewis, brilliant, because he is brilliant, but he hasn't won a race for 13 years. I repeat, 13 years. Antonelli, who will secure the title in Mexico's thin air barring disaster this weekend, was six at the time.

Alonso can't move on. Hamilton is the same, whatever he once believed. 

'Bruiser' Russell vows to fight to the end

George Russell has vowed to fight back to claim a world title at some point in his career after this year's disappointment of missing out, admitting he is 'bruised' but insisting 'bruisers' fight back.

The British driver would need to win all the next five races to stand any chance of pipping his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to the title, a forlorn hope, a fate to which he is resigned.

Speaking before Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix, Russell is 123 points off Antonelli with 125 up for grabs if the final two races go ahead in the war-conflicted Middle East.

He said: 'I am naturally bruised but bruisers recover. That is the thing with bruisers. This setback will not define me, though I am not satisfied with the year. 

'In my career to date I have had more good performances than bad ones in a season. It wasn't even close to 50-50 this year. I believe 2023 was my best in F1 to date. And last year I came away from 75 per cent of races thinking there was a lot I laid out on the table and that I had performed well against my team-mate (Antonelli, whom he beat convincingly) and I felt good.

'This year there have been a lot more bad days than good days.'

Russell has won three times, having made a blistering start in Melbourne at the start of a campaign he thought he had a good chance of dominating.

He also triumphed in Austria and Azerbaijan, but Antonelli has stood on the top step nine times – a remarkable performance by the 20-year-old Italian.

Russell suffered some ill-luck along the way but admits he has not produced enough championship-winning performances and only deserves to be second best. He is one point ahead of Ferrari's Hamilton in the fight for runners-up spot in the final standings.

Giving an insight into his state of mind, Russell said: 'The only silver lining is that my good days have been very good days. I've never had average performances. Why has it been either a good race or a bad race? I don't know.

'In a 20-year career, I have never had a season when I have been perfect every time. But this is my first bad year, my first proper bad year.

'I don't have an answer for it. It's not pressure. I started off perfectly well. I have not felt any more pressure this year than any other.

'I have had pressure every year in different ways. It started off very well, so it is hard to nail down.

'For me this is not negativity. It is reality. I am not here to be told nice things or hear nice things. I need a win. That is why I am not crying and dying about bad performances. I am thinking, 'Why isn't it working?'

'These are questions I am having with myself and with the team.'

Casting aside any notion that he might seek a future outside Mercedes, he added: 'The team still have 100 per cent faith in me and that means a lot to me. Because they have followed me since 2016, they know what I am capable of.

'You don't lose that overnight and I haven't lost that this season. If you are a baseball player you are either hitting a home run or you are missing the ball, and that is how it feels right now.

'I am the same driver as I was when I put it on pole in Baku by eight tenths as when I qualified in Austin last weekend in P6. We need to work together to understand why there was so much of a change.

'The team have been brilliant, to be fair. They understand that we need to work on this together. It's not as if you are left in the weeds to sort this out. We are very much in this as a collective.'