Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes career ended fittingly with an incredible overtake on the final lap of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton passed teammate George Russell on the outside entering Turn 9 to take fourth place after starting 16th.
“Lewis, that was the drive of a world champion,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff told Hamilton after the race.
“That was fun,” Hamilton responded.
The partnership between Hamilton and Mercedes is the most successful driver-team partnership in Formula 1 history. After winning a title with McLaren, Hamilton joined Mercedes ahead of the 2013 season, just two seasons after the manufacturer of automobiles will restart its Formula 1 team.
“What started as a leap of faith became a journey into the history books,” Hamilton told his team after crossing the finish line.
After finishing fourth in the 2013 standings, Hamilton won 11 of 19 races to claim his second title in 2014. From there, he won five more titles over the next six seasons and was only denied by teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016, a title fight that was one of the most dramatic fights between teammates in F1 history. Rosberg abruptly retired after that season.
Hamilton’s seventh championship in 2020 tied him with Michael Schumacher for the most world titles in F1 history. And he should have broken Schumacher’s record a year later, but F1 fans are well aware that did not happen in Abu Dhabi, as F1 race officials did not follow protocol and Max Verstappen beat Hamilton by the championship and the victory in the race. tires on a last lap restart.
That world championship heartbreak still hurts many Hamilton fans. Especially considering how the last three seasons have gone.
Mercedes’ mistake with building its car ahead of the 2022 season led to the first winless season of Hamilton’s career. He did not win a race again in 2023, as Verstappen won 19 of 22 races.
However, Hamilton, 39, finished third a season ago and signed a two-year contract with the team that included a second-year option for both the team and the driver. With his F1 future seemingly secured until 2025, it came as a surprise when Ferrari and Hamilton announced on February 1 that he would reject his Mercedes option and join the Scuderia in 2025 to team up with Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton cited Schumacher’s success with Ferrari when deciding on his “new chapter” in F1. Schumacher won his last five titles with Ferrari.
“Of course, I think for all the drivers growing up, looking at history, seeing Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think we probably all sit in our garage and watch the screen come up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit and You wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by red.” Hamilton said in preseason testing.
“You go to the Italian Grand Prix and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans and it leaves you amazed. It’s a team that hasn’t had much success lately, since 2007, and I saw it as a big challenge. “Certainly, even as a kid, I used to play as Michael in that car, so it’s definitely a dream and I’m very, very excited about it.”
Ferrari, however, has been faster than Mercedes in the last three seasons. The team finished second behind McLaren in the constructors’ standings this season and was three points behind Mercedes for second place in 2023 after beating the Silver Arrows in 2022. At the moment, it can be argued that Hamilton joins a team that has been faster with the current F1. automobile regulations.
However, it will still be incredibly strange to see Hamilton wearing red when pre-season testing rolls around in a few months. Just as Schumacher in red was to Hamilton and many other drivers his age, Hamilton in silver and black is iconic to younger drivers. His Mercedes teammate George Russell idolized Hamilton as a child and this weekend he had Hamilton sign a copy of a book he tried to get Hamilton to autograph for him more than a decade ago.
However, the change may ultimately be for the better. Both for Mercedes and Hamilton. The team starts anew with 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli taking Hamilton’s seat and Hamilton gets a chance to reset after three grueling years that haven’t been up to his standards after the madness of the end of the 2021 season. .
The struggles have also affected him publicly. After qualifying in Qatar a week ago, Hamilton said he was “I definitely don’t fast anymore.” when he was four tenths off Russell’s pace. That comment came after Hamilton openly admitted that “I really didn’t want to go back.” after a difficult weekend in Brazil in November.
Despite the doubts and recent problems in qualifying, Hamilton has put in some excellent performances. Hamilton nearly ran over Russell to win in Las Vegas, the race that immediately followed Brazil. And he was fantastic on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, after a bollard from Kevin Magnussen’s car in the first round of qualifying relegated Hamilton to a starting position of 16th.
Hamilton started the race on hard compound tires and ran hard in his first stint as all the other drivers had to pit and change their medium tyres. The strategic move allowed Hamilton to use medium tires for his final stint of the race and he gained more than 14 seconds on Russell in the closing laps thanks to the tire difference.
Russell’s aggressive pass was classic Hamilton. And further proof that there is still a lot of speed and fight left in the driver with the most victories and pole positions in the history of Formula 1.
“I love you guys, I really do,” Hamilton told his team.
“We love you too and you will always be part of that family,” Wolff responded. “And if we can’t win, you should win.”