LEWIS HAMILTON could lose the appetite for F1 if he's no longer fighting for world titles – according to Damon Hill.
Hamilton's contract with Mercedes expires at the end of the year and while he says he is committed to agreeing new terms, Hill reckons his desire to continue could be tested if he were to have another uncompetitive season.
The 38-year-old lost the title in 2021 and went winless in 2022 for the first time in his career.
And Hill, who quit racing just three years after winning the world title himself in 1996, believes Hamilton's motivation is to win a record eighth world title.
He said: "After a while, you've had your fill of driving F1 cars, as amazing as that might seem.
"Lewis will respond to opportunity. If the opportunity diminishes rather than increases, then it will be more difficult for him to deliver those stellar performances.
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"He's someone who is inspired by an opportunity to win.
"An opportunity to come fifth is not really sufficient motivation for Lewis.
"Given his incredible record, he may well want to ask, 'Why do I need to keep doing this?' if there's no sign of the summit.
"That eighth world title was in his grasp and then it was denied him.
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"That's the only reason he came back and carried on: the hope of getting that eighth title.
"I think that is his only motivation. I don't think he just wants to race.
"He's still got some more seasons, but he's not got 10 years ahead of him. It's going to be one or two.
"But when you've had that many years in Formula One, to pull your socks up and fight for fourth place, it gets a little bit less appealing."
Former F1 world champion Jenson Button also believes that Hamilton could walk away if Merc's new car isn't up to scratch.
Button said of his former McLaren team-mate to The Telegraph: "It has to be that, right?
"Why otherwise would you leave it this late? He knows how annoying we all are asking [about the contract].
"I mean, we’ve got to ask the question, but he’s going to hate answering it over and over and over again.
"It can only be because he’s wondering how competitive they will be.
"Is he going to sign if the car is uncompetitive because he wants it to be quick again before he retires?
“Or is he thinking, ‘If it’s not better, I’m just going to retire’. Who knows?”
Meanwhile, Hamilton has been urged along with fellow F1 drivers to speak out on human rights to steer the sport away from a 'moral vacuum'.
The F1 season kicks off this week in Bahrain with the second race in Saudi Arabia, with both countries facing criticism over their human rights.
Paul Scriven, a member of Britain's House of Lords, told a news conference organised by the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) F1 was at a crossroads.
He said: "There are two roads that F1 can now take.
"One is a road which is a moral vacuum where the leaders and the administrators seem to going.
"There is another road that some drivers seem to be taking… who understand they can use their platform and their sport not just for sport's sake but for good and for change and that they cannot ignore the human rights abuses in the country that they are driving in."
Hamilton has previously insisted the sport addresses the issues in countries where it races.
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However, with the sport's governing body, the FIA, now banning "political, religious and personal statements or comments", human rights groups want them to continue to highlight their causes.
BIRD said human rights in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia had been "increasingly trampled on" and accused F1 of helping to "facilitate sportswashing of abuses."
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