ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Atop the Mercedes hospitality unit at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit, cooled by nearby fans working hard in the afternoon heat, Lewis Hamilton sat at a table with his racing engineer, Peter Bonnington, in front some preparations. racing weekend plans.
It was a routine they had experienced before – 245 times, in fact – but the 246th time brought a little more emotion. After 12 years, 84 race wins and six world championships, making it the most successful driver-team partnership in F1 history, this was Hamilton’s final race weekend as a Mercedes driver.
Hamilton’s conversations with Bonnington, affectionately known as ‘Bono’ and someone who likens Hamilton to a brother, remained as professional as ever. They knew there was work to be done. But a few hours later, the seven-time world champion admitted that these conversations brought an extra level of emotion.
“You sit there and you realize these are the last moments with the team, and that’s… it’s hard to describe the feeling,” Hamilton said. “It is of course not the best, but I think I am especially proud of what we have achieved.”
The ‘last dance’ for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes has been in the making for ten months. On February 1, Hamilton announced he would do so movement to Ferrari for 2025, giving the 39-year-old one final blast in F1’s iconic red cars to end his glittering career. Abu Dhabi was always going to be an important Grand Prix.
But at the end of a taxing year at the track, filled with the highs of victory at Silverstone and Spa to the lows at the end of the season, both Hamilton and Mercedes want to end with a celebration.
“It is a very beautiful journey that you are on together,” Hamilton said. “And because it took so long, the emotions run so deep.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had an idea of what was about to happen when Hamilton arrived at his home in Oxfordshire for their pre-season catch-up.
Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s F1 chief and a close friend of Wolff, had not responded to a text message asking if he was “taking our driver”, and the father of Carlos Sainz, who was due to replace Hamilton, had tipped off the Mercedes boss that something would happen could happen.
Looking back on Thursday, Hamilton admitted it was an “awkward” meeting with Wolff to break the news that their partnership would end. Just eight months earlier they had agreed a contract extension that appeared to reaffirm their commitment, a contract extension that Hamilton had previously expected would last long after his racing days in F1 were over. Their joint work on campaigns to support long-awaited changes to diversity and equality in F1 is a legacy that means more to Hamilton than his racing achievements.
It also led to him admitting for a year that he was “hugely underestimating” from an emotional point of view. “It put a strain on the relationship very early on; It took time for people to get past it,” Hamilton admitted. “And just for myself: it has been a very emotional year for me. And I don’t think I’ve been at my best in dealing with and dealing with those emotions.”
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff talk on the grid of the Lusail International Circuit on November 30, 2024. (James Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Hamilton has always worn his heart on his sleeve, evidenced by the tears shed after ending his two-and-a-half year victory drought at Silverstone. The intimacy of his relationship with Mercedes allows for a brutal honesty that has survived significant disappointment – such as his 2016 title loss to teammate Nico Rosberg or, more controversially, what happened in Abu Dhabi three years ago when he missed out on a record eighth world title.
Wolff has always loved poking at open wounds, knowing that this is often the only way to understand how to improve a situation. He felt Hamilton and Mercedes had “done a good job” in dealing with the emotions of this year.
“When he made the decision to leave at the start of the season, we knew it could be a bumpy year,” Wolff said in Qatar. ‘He knows he’s going somewhere else. We know that our future lies with Kimi (Antonelli). To get through the ups and downs and still keep it together, that’s something we’ve accomplished.”
“I’m just slow.”
It may seem fanciful when these words are spoken by a seven-time world champion. But there was a degree of resignation as Hamilton dealt with a difficult Friday of practice for the Qatar Grand Prix where he didn’t feel the car was giving him back the performance he needed. It continued a season-long trend.
For much of the year the Mercedes W15 car had not adapted to his driving style and not allowed him to achieve the pace he needed, especially in one lap. Through 23 races this season, Hamilton trails George Russell 18-5 in their qualifier and is 24 points behind in the drivers’ standings.
The day after Hamilton made that comment, having qualified sixth in Qatar while Russell was P2 and almost half a second faster, he was asked to elaborate. Did he really mean that he had lost his edge? Is this a sign of the decline that most elite drivers and sports stars face as they approach their 40s?
“I know I still have it,” Hamilton said. “(It’s) just that the car doesn’t go a little faster. I’m sure I still have it. It’s not a question that comes to mind. (I) look forward to the end.”
Lewis Hamilton enters his last race with Mercedes seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
It was not the first time Hamilton had given such a bleak outlook. After the race in Brazil, where he had fallen as far as tenth in rainy conditions while Russell had been in the race for victory before the red flag, he admitted that he could “happily go on holiday” instead of last to do a triple race. header. In Las Vegas, as the W15 came to life in the cold and dropped Mercedes to a 1-2, Hamilton seemed gloomy that he had not been the one to guide him home after qualifying in P10 while Russell was on pole.
“These last races, maybe even the whole season, were clearly not what we expected,” Wolff said in Qatar. “That car is a handful to drive on its worst days.”
But how much of that hurt Hamilton in a way that it didn’t hurt Russell? Wolff attributed some of it to Hamilton’s driving style. “One of his strengths is that he can always brake late and attack the corner, but the car can’t handle that,” he said, adding that when grip is lost in the slow corners, the problem worsens. “If the car then slides more and has no grip, that contributes to (him) probably suffering more than George.”
In Qatar, Vasseur said he was “not at all” concerned about the form of his upcoming star signee. “Look at the 50 laps he did in Vegas, starting in 10th (and) finishing on Russell’s gearbox,” Vasseur said. “I’m not worried at all.”
The progress Ferrari has made this year, recovering from a mid-season slump and a late battle against McLaren for the constructors’ title, will also encourage Hamilton to revive more of his old form. He emphasized on Thursday that while his focus for his final weekend remains on Mercedes, there was a natural excitement about the next chapter.
“It really boosts motivation,” said Hamilton, “and it’s a dream scenario for any driver to get an opportunity like this. I don’t take that for granted.”
Whenever Hamilton hangs up his helmet and reflects on his hugely successful career, this spell at Mercedes will be the lasting, most definitive part of his racing legacy.
When he decided to make a shock move away from McLaren, then consistently one of F1’s leading teams, in 2012, it was derided as a mistake: a move into midfield, away from the team that brought Hamilton to F1 had brought, and into the unknown.
It turned out to be the right move at the right time. McLaren was about to begin a decade-long decline, while Mercedes was about to start a record-breaking F1 dynasty with Hamilton at its center.
This step also allowed Hamilton to become himself. His evolution from a 27-year-old former champion to one of F1’s elder statesmen, on the eve of his 40th birthday with seven world titles to his name, with interests and a celebrity status that extends far beyond this paddock, has been impressive. .
Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton sits on his car and poses for a group photo with his team ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP. (Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)
At the entrance to the Mercedes garage for this weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit are two large photos of Hamilton, one from Hungary 2013 – his first win for Mercedes – and the second from Silverstone this year, perhaps the most emotional of his record of 104 victories. Opposite it is the message: “Every dream needs a team.”
Even the challenges of this year and the difficulty of a year-long farewell will not detract from what Hamilton and Mercedes have built together.
“Nothing can take away twelve incredible years with eight constructors’ and six drivers’ championships,” said Wolff. “That will be the memory and after next Sunday we will look back on this great period rather than on a season or races that were particularly bad.
“We will stick with the good memories.”
Good memories. Historical memories. So heavy with emotion that when the checkered flag falls for Hamilton on Sunday evening and he hoists himself out of a Mercedes F1 car for the final time, they will surely come flooding back.
Top photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images, Clive Rose/Getty Images; Design: Meech Robinson/The Athletics