The winter break provides drivers with a perfect opportunity to spend Christmas with their family, travel around the world and recover after a long season of motorsport racing.
Some drivers such as Valtteri Bottas choose to chase the sun over the winter, with the Finn spending his Christmas period in Australia with his partner, choosing sun over snowy Finland.
Lewis Hamilton however is currently in Antarctica, preparing for the 2023 season and enjoying exploring such a remote part of the world.
The seven-time world champion recently celebrated his 38th birthday with his friends and family and is now training with penguins and seals before returning to Brackley where Mercedes are based.
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The Brit confirmed towards the end of last season that he would be signing a multi-year contract extension with Mercedes over the winter break, however with just over a month to go until pre-season testing will seriously ramp up, no contract extension has been made official.
Toto Wolff has now put fan’s fears to rest, claiming that Hamilton will 100 percent extend his deal with Mercedes, but has urged the Brit to return to the UK in order to do so.
“We have a full year to go, we’re so aligned,” said the Austrian.
“In the last 10 years our relationship has grown that it’s just a matter of him physically being back in Europe, sticking our heads together, wrestling a bit and then leaving the room with white smoke after a few hours.”
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The disappointment of the 2021 and 2022 seasons have made Hamilton hungrier than ever to win a record breaking eighth world championship according to the 38-year-old, leaving no doubt in his mind that he would continue in F1 despite previously suggesting that he would not race into his 40’s.
The Stevenage born superstar has recently admitted that like many other successful athletes, he dreams of being able to retire as a world champion, hence his desire to continue in F1 for the foreseeable future.
Not only will Hamilton be racing against the other nine teams on the grid this year, he will also have to get the better of his teammate George Russell if he is to win another championship, a task which he failed in 2022.