John Surtees has played down suggestions that he should receive a knighthood, in response to repeated calls from the British public to have him honored.
Surtees' 1964 Formula 1 crown made him the only man in history to have won world titles on two wheels and four.
Numerous calls have come to have him knighted, including an official online petition that was submitted to the British government in a bid to have the 78-year-old Briton included in the most recent New Year Honours List.
Speaking at the AUTOSPORT International motorsports show, Surtees said that he was unaffected by the talk surrounding the honor and that Britain's success at the London Olympics last year would likely have pushed him down the pecking order.
"It might happen, but you never know," said Surtees. "The government does tend to have rather a lot of things on its mind at the moment.
"In a year of the Olympics, which from the point of view of staging it, was such a wonderful ad for Team GB, it's very difficult I think to know."