"I hope he will stay a bit longer" - Max Verstappen does not want Lewis Hamilton to retire from F1

Max Verstappen has had his best season in F1 so far. The Dutchman took home the championship title after intense battling with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Despite their rivalry, Verstappen hopes the Mercedes driver will stay with the sport for longer amid rumors of the Briton's retirement.

Verstappen was speaking on the BBC's Chequered Flag podcast. As reported by PlanetF1, this is what he said about Hamilton:

“Lewis is 36 now, so maybe there is a few more years for him, hopefully, a few more years for me after that. I hope, of course, he will stay in the sport a bit longer and we can have more of these battles.”

The 2021 season saw the championship lead change hands at various times. The two title contenders subsequently entered the final race of the season on equal points.

Having chased Lewis Hamilton the whole race, Max Verstappen took the championship with an overtake on the very last lap in Abu Dhabi. The overtake came about after a safety car period as a result of Nicholas Latifi's crash in the later stages of the race. While Mercedes protested the legality of the overtake, their objections were refuted by the stewards.

While there have been many duels between them on track, the two rivals have shown respect for one another on multiple occasions.

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Max Verstappen hopes more teams get competitive in 2022

The fight for the championship title this year may have only involved Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The Dutchman, however, hopes that with the new technical regulations coming in 2022, more teams will be able to put up a strong fight and experience what it is like to challenge a seven-time world champion.

Describing his hopes for the 2022 season, Max Verstappen added:

“I also hope other young guys – because hopefully with the new rules more teams will be more competitive – that we all have that fight against him as well. He’s a seven-time World Champion and it has been a pleasure to race against him this year especially.”

The 2022 season will mark a new era in F1, with less disparity expected in car performance. Consequently, pure driving and wheel-to-wheel battles are anticipated to decide the outcomes of a race. As teams start to perform on a more level playing field, intense battles throughout the grid are likely to give fans a season to look out for.