Hamilton: My goal in F1 was to surpass Senna

Lewis Hamilton has insisted that his goal in Formula 1 was never to try and match or surpass the achievements of Michael Schumacher, but to emulate the late, great Ayrton Senna as he closes in on his fifth world championship in the United States Grand Prix.

The Brit has been in scintillating form since the summer break, and now holds a 67-point lead over Sebastian Vettel in the driver rankings for 2018.

Should he claim the flag in Austin this weekend, along with Vettel failing to finish higher than third, he will win his fifth title which matches the tally of Juan Manuel Fangio, having already beat Senna's three.

Schumacher holds the record for the most championships with seven, and even though that figure is in sight for Hamilton, he claims it was never his career goal to match the German, saying that Senna was the driver he wanted to aspire to.

"Honestly that has never been my goal," he told Reuters when asked if Schumacher's seven were a target.

"I started out with the goal to match Ayrton Senna or to equalise with Ayrton Senna who is my... who's the guy that I aspire to be like, and I equalled him two years ago. So since then it's kind of been going into unknown territory.

"So I mean Michael's stats are incredible and still quite a long way away, but I'm here for some time still, so I'm just going to keep working hard and keep trying to do what I do and what I love and enjoy it and we'll see where it takes us."

Hamilton could not ask for a better opportunity to claim the championship than in the USA GP, as he has emerged victorious in each of the last four races in Austin. However, he is not letting the prospect of a title win affect his preparations.

"The approach that I've had up until now has worked very well," he continued.

"We naturally want to win this weekend. So diligence and going through the same steps in terms of getting the car to where it needs to be through the weekend, I feel naturally relaxed and I know what I'm going to do."

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