Lewis Hamilton was non-committal when asked for his take on the debate over who the best Formula 1 driver of all time may be.
The Brit has a very strong case in that particular argument. Only Michael Schumacher matches his total of seven world titles, while he also holds a swathe of other records including more races won, most pole positions and most fastest laps.
But Hamilton was not prepared to lean one way or the other when asked about it in a live TV interview. Instead, he told US chat shot host Jimmy Kimmel: "I know what I am – I know how good I am but I don't really like to talk about it.
"I like to just do the talking on the track. That's what my dad always said. When I was a kid when we were racing, we were on the receiving end of a lot of discrimination because we were the only people of colour on the racetrack. My dad said just do my talking on the track.
"So even today I don't feel like I need to say anything. I just let my what I'm doing on the circuit, what I'm doing off the circuit kind of talk."
It has been a difficult year for Hamilton, who has not been able to secure the sort of results he is used to. A lack of competitiveness from the Mercedes cars have left the Silver Arrows a long way off their Red Bull and Ferrari rivals on the track.
It looked as though he might finally secure that elusive first win of 2022 last time out at the US GP, but even then Max Verstappen was able to recover from a horror pit stop to breeze past the Brit.
Not that it has affected Hamilton's desire to continue his racing career, despite what looks set to be his first ever F1 season which has yielded zero victories. On the contrary, he feels he is needed by Mercedes as they strive to get back to winning ways, and so he looks set to extend his F1 career.
"We are going to do another deal," Hamilton told reporters in Austin last weekend. "We're going to sit down and we're going to discuss it in these next couple of months, I would say."
