{"id":498891,"date":"2026-02-23T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498891\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:22:09","slug":"for-a-moment-i-forgot-who-i-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498891\/","title":{"rendered":"For a moment, I forgot who I was"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seven-time Formula 1 champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lewis-hamilton\/1278\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> shared a defiant message on social media after pre-season testing in Bahrain, squashing speculation that the Briton could retire after the 2026 season if he does not find his championship-winning form.<\/p>\n<p>After pre-season testing concluded on Friday 20 February, Hamilton shared: &#8220;That\u2019s a wrap on testing. It\u2019s inspiring to watch a team pull out all the stops to build a car. It\u2019s the most fascinating part of this job for me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everything is built from scratch and designed and redesigned over and over. And then there are only a few of us who get to put that machine to the test. That feeling never gets old. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the team back at the factory for the hard work to get to this point!! I am truly grateful.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love this job so much and I love working with my team and driving for the fans. I\u2019m incredibly lucky to be able to do what I do, and I\u2019m excited for the season ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The championship welcomes a new set of regulations in 2026, which focus on an almost 50:50 split between internal combustion and electric power, among many other changes. As the recent ground effect era from 2022 to 2025 did not align with Hamilton&#8217;s driving style, all eyes will be on the Briton in 2026 due to his success in the previous hybrid era from 2014 to 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added, insisting that the mindset he has had in recent years is behind him: &#8220;I\u2019m re-set and refreshed. I\u2019m not going anywhere, so stick with me. For a moment, I forgot who I was, but thanks to you and your support you\u2019re not going to see that mindset again. I know what needs to be done. This is going to be one hell of a season. I\u2019ve given everything to be here today. Let\u2019s go team!!!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton shared a defiant message on social media after pre-season testing in Bahrain,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,239802,245984,817,826,813,816,251030,823,251029,85,1511],"class_list":["post-498891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain-international-circuit","tag-bahrain-pre-season-2","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-i-forgot-who-i-was","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-lewis-hamilton-shares-strong-im-not-going-anywhere-message-for-a-moment","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}