Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes career fittingly ended with an incredible pass on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
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 boss Toto Wolff said to Hamilton after the race.
“That was fun,” Hamilton replied.
The partnership between Hamilton and Mercedes is the most successful partnership between drivers and teams in Formula 1 history. After winning one title with McLaren, Hamilton joined Mercedes ahead of the 2013 season, just two seasons after the carmaker closed its Formula 1 team had restarted.
“What started as a leap into the deep turned into a journey into the history books,” Hamilton told his team after crossing the finish line.
After finishing fourth in the standings in 2013, Hamilton won 11 of 19 races to score 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 know very well how that didn’t happen in Abu Dhabi as F1 race officials didn’t follow protocol and Max Verstappen passed Hamilton for the championship and race win on fresher. tires on a restart on the last lap.
That heartbreak at the World Cup still hurts many Hamilton fans. Especially considering how the last three seasons have gone.
Mercedes’ mistake with car construction ahead of the 2022 season led to the first winless season of Hamilton’s career. In 2023 he failed to win another race as Verstappen won 19 of the 22 races.
However, 39-year-old Hamilton finished third a season ago and signed a two-year contract with the team, which included a second-year option for both the team and driver. With his F1 future appearing secure through 2025, it was a shock when Ferrari and Hamilton announced on February 1 that he would reject his Mercedes option and move to the Scuderia in 2025 to team up with Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton cited Schumacher’s success at Ferrari when deciding on his “new chapter” in F1. Schumacher won his last five titles with Ferrari.
“Of course I think for every driver growing up, looking at history, looking at Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think we’re all probably sitting in our garage and seeing the screen come on, and you see the driver in the red cockpit and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by red,” Hamilton said during preseason testing.
“You go to the Italian Grand Prix and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans and you can only be in awe of that. It’s a team that hasn’t had great success recently, since 2007, and I could tell it was a huge challenge. Without a doubt, I played as Michael in that car as a kid, so it’s definitely a dream and I’m really excited about it.
However, Ferrari has been faster than Mercedes in the past three seasons. The team finished second to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship this season and were three points behind Mercedes for second place in 2023 after beating the Silver Arrows in 2022. At this point, you could say Hamilton is joining a team that is faster has been with current F1 performance. car regulations.
However, it will still be incredibly strange to see Hamilton in red during preseason testing in a few months’ time. Just as Schumacher in red was for Hamilton and many other drivers his age, Hamilton in silver and black is iconic for 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 signed more than a decade ago.
However, the change may ultimately be for the best. Both for Mercedes and Hamilton. The team gets to start over with 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli taking Hamilton’s seat, and Hamilton gets a chance to reset after a grueling three years that haven’t lived up to his standards following the madness of the 2021 season finale.
The fight also tarnished him publicly. After qualifying in Qatar a week ago, Hamilton said he was “definitely not fast anymore” as he was four-tenths off Russell’s pace. That comment came after Hamilton openly admitted he “didn’t really want to come back” after a tough weekend in Brazil in November.
Despite the doubts and recent qualifying problems, Hamilton has put in some vintage performances. Hamilton almost trailed Russell for victory in Las Vegas, the race that immediately followed Brazil. And he was fantastic on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, after a wayward bollard from Kevin Magnussen’s car in the first qualifying round relegated Hamilton to a starting position of 16th.
Hamilton started the race on hard compound tires and drove long during his first stint, as every other driver had to pit and change their medium tires. The strategic move allowed Hamilton to use the medium tires for his final stint of the race and the tire difference allowed him to make up more than 14 seconds on Russell in the closing laps.
Russell’s aggressive pass was vintage Hamilton. And further proof that there is still plenty of speed and fight left in the driver with the most wins and pole positions in Formula 1 history.
“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 replied. “And if we can’t win, you have to win.”
