Lewis Hamilton takes aim at former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg after fourth F1 world title win

Lewis Hamilton has no plans to bow out of Formula One in similar fashion to his former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg after claiming his fourth world title.

The 32-year-old became Britain's most successful driver and just the fifth man in the sport's history to capture four championships after a ninth place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Success comes less than 12 months on from Rosberg pipping Hamilton to the title in 2016 before retiring from motorsport days later after admitting to struggling to cope with the stress of the sport.

But the Silver Arrows driver says he has unfinished business and wants to add a fifth title to his career, something only seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio have achieved.

"Four is a great number. But I want number five now," said the Stevenage-born racer. "I want to go out at the top ... I could do the easy thing, like obviously Nico did, which is just stop and retreat with these four titles.

"But I think there's more in me. I think there's more to come, more of a challenge. There's harder times ahead and I like that, I love that. That's challenging, and it would be so boring without it."

He added: "I will continue to race while I love it, I've enjoyed it this year more than ever. I do think about how it would be so nice at some stage just to live in one place, a lot more socialising, walking your dogs every day or surfing. But then I'm thinking, there's a lot of life to live beyond 40. There's a lot to go."

While his championship rival this season Sebastian Vettel and race winner in Mexico Max Verstappen are expected to form two of the challengers to Hamilton next season, Fernando Alonso could be set for a renewed bid to claim a third title in the new Renault-powered McLaren.

The Woking-based team have split with Honda for 2018 and Alonso is confident he will be challenging for race wins again and end Mercedes' "easy" dominance of the sport.

"It was very easy this year, no opponents," he said. "Last year he had Nico [Rosberg] until the last race, fighting every single race. This year was too easy. Mercedes four races to the end constructors' champion, Hamilton three races before the end drivers' champion. Hopefully McLaren-Renault will change this easy time for them.

"I think he [Hamilton] knows, he knows. He knows also how strong the McLaren car [is] in the corners, he saw also today. I think next year hopefully we can give a little bit harder time to him."