You are performing pretty much at the peak of your powers and another world title would, statistically at least, make you the official Greatest Of All Time.
And in the upcoming season, all the tools to win an EIGHTH Championship will be at your disposal.
A golden chance to separate yourself from other sporting legends still beckons.
So why, on earth, would Sir Lewis Hamilton quit Formula One?
Since the drama of that final race in Abi Dhabi, Hamilton has kept a dignified silence.
He popped back to the motherland for his gong but has not been seen or heard since.
Which is understandable, considering the painful and acrimonious way in which he was denied a record-breaking title.
But let’s hope the idea of him walking away from F1 does not materialise.
There is no doubt Hamilton, via a decision by race director Michael Masi, was robbed in the last race but he got away with one when he took out eventual champion Max Verstappen and won the British Grand Prix last season, don’t forget.
These things go around and come around in sport.
If Hamilton calls it a day because a decade and a half in the Formula One pressure cooker has taken its toll, then fair enough.
He has already shown quite astonishing mental and physical strength to be at the very top for this long.
But if the Mercedes driver calls it a day because he is still annoyed by the call of a race director, then it will be the the tamest of retirements.
Such is his talent, Hamilton can right wrongs on the track, put Verstappen in his place, roar to an eighth title and go out all engines blazing.
That will the be the way to call it a day, that will be the way to officially become the GOAT.
