Damon Hill talked to the world's media today, the first time since announcing last week that he plans to retire at the end of the season. Sitting in the Jordan motorhome, surrounded by photographers, TV crews and journalists, he said, "I have enjoyed racing in F1 but there comes a time for everyone - and that time has come for me - when that enjoyment factor has decreased sufficiently for me to decide that it is affecting my performance.

"I made the decision on the Tuesday after Canada. There was mounting pressure from within and I had asked myself many times when I was going to stop. I have made it clear before that if I wasn't enjoying it and I did not think I could be competitive it would be time to stop and I think those two criteria have been met this year."

Damon admitted that a burden had been lifted since announcing his decision and that he felt better about revealing his thoughts for the future. "One of the reasons I made the announcement was to make it clear where I stand," he continued. "I wanted to make it plain to Eddie, everyone in the Jordan team, the sponsors and the public, that I see an end at the end of this year. I did not want to invite continual speculation which would have been an unfair and misleading distraction."

Asked if he might leave before the end of the season, he said, "I do not want to damage in any way Eddie [Jordan]'s hopes of securing his highest ever Constructors' Championship position. If my performances are not up to it then of course we will have to discuss it, but that is certainly not my intent."

When asked if he might remain involved in F1 in some other way in the future, Damon said, "I would love to be involved in F1 in some way. It is an amazing spectacle. F1 is an area where I believe I have quite a lot of expertise and I have a lot experience to put to good use, but we will have to see in what capacity I might be involved."