Serious shock, but good luck to the boy. Good on him. Fascinated to see who they bring in. Suspect they'll promote Pascal Wehrlein.
Not surprised by that. He and Hamilton clearly don't get on at all and he probably can't be arsed to deal with it any more. I'd love it if Mercedes signed Verstappen and he wiped the floor with Hamilton.
It's a dangerous sport and he has mentioned his family several times recently. How retirement feels to him in reality will depend on what his interests are...if he has plans, his retirement will work out better than if this is just a spur of the moment decision.
Indeed. It's not as if he won't race again. If he ever wants to do some racing for a season or two he will have opportunities thrown at him left, right and centre. Michael Schumacher packed it in - and went motorcycle racing for two seasons. And he was quite good too, which is unusual, as excellent bike riders can often be excellent drivers, but it's much harder the other way around. World MotoGP Champion Casey Stoner retired after his second title when he was undoubtedly the fastest thing on two wheels. He was 26 at the time. A mere youngster. He has raced cars since, largely for fun. Occasionally he whizzes a race bike around a track, just to get the feel of it again.
(He only won this one because of that non finish Lewis had) Its like knock out football at school, scoring the goal, grabbing the ball and walking off, you can't beat me now. Rather than be a champion on the grid, now he's retired. Wow, super way to spoil an achievement.
I think it's a fair statement. How much did this season take out of him? A lot, given he's retired. I just don't think he would be able to repeat it.
It's not really anything like winning knock out football at school... unless winning knock out football at school is what you had spent 25 years dreaming of doing.... I remember really wanting to win knock out football at school, but never quite remember thinking it would be the pinnacle of my achievements... now I've I'd caught Sarah the brunette whilst playing kiss chase...
Yeah I know, he spent so long getting to this point, that I just understand his thinking in quitting right now. The ball thing was a crap analogy, 'i'm not playing anymore' kinda thing. He could have just turned up next year as champ, drive safe like Massa and left with a fan fair. I just don't get it.
