Lewis Hamilton hopes he can continue to use his position within Formula One to push for greater diversity, saying such an achievement would be "more rewarding than any championship".

The Mercedes driver has won a joint-record seven world titles across his career, tied only with Michael Schumacher, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest in the sport's history.

Yet he has commanded just as much attention for his off-track activities in recent years, with the Briton leading anti-racism and pro-LGBTQ demonstrations within F1.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – where he protested against anti-LGBTQ laws last year – Hamilton revealed he hopes to thrive in continuing to push for broader change.

"That's my role here I think to continue to hold those conversations, sit with Stefano [Domenicali] and say what are you doing and how can we work together?" the 37-year-old told Sky Sports.

"It goes back to bringing people on the journey rather than calling people out and unfortunately it takes a lot of yapping, but I think people seem more keen to be on the journey together and they empathise more with it and say yes, we can do a better job.

"I've got this platform and I am able to apply pressure in an uncomfortable way sometimes, but also it is a real opportunity to spark that change and that for me is more rewarding than any championship.

"My goal is that in the next five, 10 years you're looking back at the sport and I am watching TV, hopefully with my kids, and they see young women engineers and mechanics and they'll know there is an opportunity."

Great start to the season. We gave it our all and ended up with the best result we could have. Well done to the Ferraris, great to see them share the podium. Big week of work ahead but I know we got this pic.twitter.com/p3HXaIR1XF

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) March 20, 2022

Having lost the 2021 F1 World Championship to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances, Hamilton was denied a record-breaking eighth title.

But while winning honours remains a motivation for Hamilton, he feels such feats do not move the needle on the matters he wishes to help solve.

"I think as I started getting older, I started thinking I am winning these championships but what does it really mean?" he added.

"I realised that these championships are very rewarding personally, but they're not changing anything.

"You have another credit to your name, but it doesn't change the world, it doesn't change the fact we still have wars, we still have racial injustice.

"There are still people being abuse, there are all sorts of things out there, so what are we going to use this medium for, what are we going to use this platform for?

"I guess I really discovered my purpose – it's not just being a racing driver."