Lewis Hamilton drops fatherhood hint and makes F1 bet admission after Mexican Grand Prix

Hamilton recently said he had no plans to become a father and that he was more than happy being an uncle.

But the Stevenage-born racer has now suggested he's still open to the possibility because he wants to be a brilliant father one day.

“I always try to win, even against my little nieces,” he told Canal+.

“They're getting good at it. I have to win whenever I can. My father never let me win. It's good to learn to lose.

“To be good at something you have to put at least 10,000 hours into it.

"I want to spend those 10,000 hours being the best father I can be, or looking after my businesses.

“I behave like a child all the time. I don't care, I love having fun.

"Whether I'm skydiving, surfing, skiing or riding a motorbike.

"That's my childish side. and I want to keep that forever.”

Hamilton wasn't good enough to catch Verstappen in Mexico, despite Mercedes now finally showing signs of life.

The Silver Arrows have struggled this term, with Christian Horner's Red Bull leading the way.

And Hamilton has now revealed he's willing to bet that Verstappen will win as many as 19 races this season.

"It definitely gives us a lot of confidence," said the 38-year-old when asked about Mercedes' improved displays.

"I mean, last year, at the same time, we were doing the same thing, but last year, I think we were three-tenths behind Max in qualifying or something like that and I came second, but he walked off with the win.

"So we're really just mirroring what we did last year, so we have to make some real big changes for next year.

"Obviously in Bahrain earlier this year, they were 1.5s a lap faster than us, at least, so the key is to make sure that is not the case in Bahrain [for the 2024 season opener].

"Hopefully, these next couple of races will be close, but I'd probably put money on it that [Max] will get to 18, 19 [wins] with that car."

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, meanwhile, reveals Hamilton was happy with his car for the first time this season after his strong showing in Mexico.

He said: “Today I think it was a first where he said ‘the car is actually good!’

"But it was a brilliant, brilliant drive and we have these oscillations in performance.

"We don’t really know, sometimes the tyres stick, sometimes not.

“The smiles on our faces because the car was strong. I think once Lewis was in free air, we had so much margin on the medium, fastest lap at the end. It was good.”

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When quizzed on how close he thinks Mercedes are to finishing first, Wolff added: "Not sure.

“It’s been a few weekends now that we’ve been saying ‘we could have’ but we didn’t.

"I think we need to qualify better and then probably in straight line speed, it wouldn’t have been so competitive against Max but who knows? The pace is there.”