PARIS, France -- Lewis Hamilton still has no ambition to beat Michael Schumacher's record of seven world titles, despite claiming the fourth championship of his career this season.
Hamilton will receive his championship trophy in Paris on Friday evening, promoting him into a select group of just five drivers -- including Sebastian Vettel, Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio and Schumacher -- on four or more world titles.
Driving for the dominant Mercedes team, he has won three of the last four championships in F1 and this season broke Schumacher's record for the most pole positions.
He has yet to commit to a contract beyond the 2018 season, but is expected to stay with Mercedes until at least 2020 -- potentially giving him the opportunity to match Schumacher on seven. But when asked if breaking the record was his target, Hamilton said he does not measure the success of his career on titles alone.
"I can't see it at the moment -- four more titles," he said. "You can imagine, it's taken me 10 years to achieve this point. I don't currently have that desire to match it.
"Matching [the five titles of] Fangio would be cool and being that I'm going to be here for at least a couple of years more, that's my goal -- to at least get that.
"I don't think when I'm older the amount of titles that I have is going to define who or what I am as a driver. I think how I've worked with the team, how I drive the car and what I extract from the car, that for me is what I feel inside defines me.
"Who knows... when I was younger I thought I'd have a family at 28 and when I got to 28 it all shifted. It's difficult to say never, maybe in a couple of years I might say 'Jeez, I'm going to go another ten years!' I really hope that's not the case because I'll be with you guys [the media] when you're all in zimmer frames!"
Hamilton said matching the pole position record of his childhood hero Ayrton Senna was a memorable moment -- and again matching Schumacher's 68 -- but going on to set a new record of 72 by the end of the year was not a major milestone.
"Matching Ayrton was something that of course I was aware was coming up, but I remember doing that lap and I wasn't thinking about if I did a certain time I would match Ayrton. But of course afterwards, when you realise what you've done, it was unreal.
"And then later on, coming to Spa matching Michael -- I think equalling it for me was more important, passing it was something I don't think was that important.
"I think equalling someone who was so consistent, such an amazing talent, flawless in his efforts to up his fitness levels and push the team on - really an icon in our sport that all us drivers aspire to be - to be up there with him it's amazing."