Lewis Hamilton can learn from Valentino Rossi retirement as amid battle Max Verstappen
No matter the sport, being an elite athlete has one very clear inevitability in life. One day you will retire, one day you will leave behind the glory, the trophies, the challenges – you will hang up your boots/sticks/helmets – whatever the sport, you will eventually step away from the one thing that has consumed your life, and you will become a memory, or if you’re lucky, a legend of the sport.
But when is the right time to decide your time is up? Do you wait until your body decides it for you? Do you fade into the background, disappearing like a shadow in the night? Or do you jump the gun, and retire like Nico Rosberg, days after securing a World Championship title.
It’s a question that has followed Lewis Hamilton this season, at 36-years-old, with seven titles under his belt but seemingly still at the top of his game, when does an athlete like Hamilton decide enough is enough?
An interesting comparison is Valentino Rossi. He stormed to MotoGP fame as he blast onto the scene, finishing second in the championship in his first season in the sport, before back-to-back victories from 2001 onwards, stopped only by Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner, before grabbing too more titles by the end of 2009.
After a tricky few seasons, marred by a broken leg and underperforming Ducati, it looked like his time was up in the championship, until his return to Yamaha.
The Italian then finished fourth in the standings in 2013, followed by three successive runner-up positions in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
