Lewis Hamilton has issued a message to "people that are trying to retire" him, saying he has no plans to quit Ferrari or Formula 1 any time soon.
Hamilton, 41, has fared better in his second season at Ferrari than he did in 2025, claiming a podium at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The full length of the seven-time world champion's multi-year Ferrari contract has never been confirmed, but he has previously hinted it runs beyond 2026.
He did so again on Thursday ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in response to a question which referenced recent speculation that he might be considering retirement.
"I'm still under contract [next year], so everything is 100% clear to me," Hamilton said.
"I'm still focused, I'm still motivated, I still love what I do with all my heart, and I'm going to be here for quite some time, so get used to it.
"There's a lot of people that are trying to retire me, and that's not even on my thoughts. I'm already thinking of what will be next, and planning for the next five years, but yeah, I'm still planning to be here for some time."
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While much more competitive this year than last, Ferrari's position in the competitive order has been difficult to make sense of.
Ferrari looked like Mercedes' closest challenger over the first two races, but McLaren has kept the red cars off the podium at the last two races.
In Miami, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished the race sixth and eighth, although Leclerc dropped down the order due to a post-race penalty.
Hamilton still thinks his former Mercedes team will be a step ahead.
Asked how Ferrari might fare this weekend in Montreal, Hamilton said: "Hopefully a better weekend, I think there's a lot of learnings taken from the first races, and particularly from the last race.
"I think there's been a huge amount of work, which we're really grateful for, all the team back at the factory, working incredibly hard to try and analyse where we've been good, where we've not been so good, and we've adjusted processes and approach.
"I'm hoping that we're able to extract more from the car, because I still think we're trying to extract the most from the package that we have.
"Then also just being realistic of where we stand currently, compared to Mercedes for example, but lots can happen, so it's just about trying to extract the most from the car this weekend.
"It probably adjusts each weekend, obviously Mercedes are at the top. McLaren looked incredibly strong last race as well, they took a good step, and obviously Red Bull have made a huge step, so I think we're kind of in and around McLaren and Red Bull.
"We'll see, but I don't know ... obviously Mercedes have a big upgrade this weekend, even without an upgrade they were very quick in the last race, and still won the last race.
"So our focus is just going to be on ourselves, and just trying to optimise, and for me I'm really excited and hope we have a better weekend."