ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Atop the Mercedes hospitality unit on the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, cooled by way of within sight lovers operating withered within the noon warmth, Lewis Hamilton sat at a desk along with his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, for some pre-race weekend making plans.
It was once a regimen they’d been via plethora of occasions prior to — 245 occasions, actually — however the 246th moment carried a tiny extra emotion. Later 12 years, 84 race wins and 6 global championships, marking it essentially the most a hit driver-team partnership in F1 historical past, this was once the utmost race weekend for Hamilton as a Mercedes driving force.
Hamilton’s conversations with Bonnington, affectionately referred to as ‘Bono’ and any individual Hamilton has likened to a brother, remained as skilled as ever. They knew there was once a role to do. However talking a couple of hours next, the seven-time global champion admitted those chats concerned an remaining stage of emotion.
“You’re sitting there, and you’re realizing these are the last moments with the team, which is … it’s hard to describe the feeling,” Hamilton stated. “It’s not the greatest, of course, but I think mostly I’m just really proud of what we’ve achieved.”
The ‘last dance’ for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes has been ten months within the making. On Feb. 1, Hamilton introduced he would progress to Ferrari for 2025, securing the 39-year-old a utmost in F1’s iconic purple automobiles to finish his glittering profession. Abu Dhabi was once at all times taking to be an important magnificent prix.
However on the finish of a taxing yr at the monitor, stuffed with the highs of victory at Silverstone and Spa to the late-season lows, each Hamilton and Mercedes are dedicated to finishing with a party.
“It’s a really beautiful journey you go on together,” Hamilton stated. “And being that it was so long, the emotions run so deep.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes group predominant, had an inkling of what was once coming when Hamilton arrived at his Oxfordshire house for his or her pre-season catch-up.
Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s F1 leading and a near good friend of Wolff’s, hadn’t responded to a textual content asking if he was once “taking our driver,” and the daddy of Carlos Sainz, who Hamilton would substitute, had tipped off the Mercedes boss that one thing could be taking place.
Having a look again on Thursday, Hamilton admitted to it being an “awkward” assembly with Wolff to crack the inside track that their partnership would finish. Simplest 8 months previous, they’d correct on a assurance extension that perceived to reaffirm their loyalty, one Hamilton had prior to now envisaged lasting lengthy past his moment racing in F1 was once over. Their joint paintings on campaigns to lend a hand lengthy past due alternate relating to variety and equality in F1 is a legacy that implies extra to Hamilton than his racing achievements.
It additionally made for a yr he admitted that he “massively underestimated” from an emotional perspective. “It was straining on the relationship very early on; (it) took time for people to get past it,” Hamilton admitted. “And then just for my own self, it’s been a very emotional year for me. And I think I’ve not been at my best in handling and dealing with those emotions.”
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff communicate at the grid at Lusail Global Circuit on Nov. 30, 2024. (James Sutton – Formulation 1/Formulation 1 by the use of Getty Photographs)
Hamilton has at all times used his middle on his sleeve, evidenced by way of the tears that flowed next finishing his two-and-a-half-year win drought at Silverstone. The intimacy of his dating with Mercedes allows a brutal honesty that has survived vital disappointments — like his 2016 identify loss to teammate Nico Rosberg or, extra controversially, what took place in Abu Dhabi 3 years in the past when he overlooked out on a checklist 8th global identify.
Wolff has at all times favored to prod at any perceivable wounds, figuring out this is incessantly the one option to know how to create a status higher. He felt that Hamilton and Mercedes had “done a good job” dealing with the sentiments of this yr.
“When he took the decision at the beginning of the season to go, we knew it could be a bumpy year ahead,” Wolff stated in Qatar. “He knows he’s going to go somewhere else. We know our future lies with Kimi (Antonelli). To go through the ups and downs and still keep it together between us, that is something we have achieved.”
“I’m just slow.”
For those phrases to be uttered by way of a seven-time global champion would possibly appear fanciful. However there was once some extent of retirement as Hamilton digested a hard Friday of observe for the Qatar Lavish Prix, the place he couldn’t really feel the automobile giving him again the type of efficiency he wanted. It persevered a season-long development.
For a lot of the yr, the Mercedes W15 automotive hadn’t gelled to his using taste or allowed him to take out the type of generation that he’d wanted, specifically over a unmarried lap. Thru 23 races this season, Hamilton trails George Russell 18-5 of their qualifying head-to-head and is 24 issues in the back of within the drivers’ standings.
The presen next Hamilton made that remark, when he’d certified 6th in Qatar date Russell was once P2 and nearly half of a 2d sooner, he was once requested to enlarge on it. Did he actually ruthless that he’s misplaced the threshold? Is that this an indication of the moderate maximum elite drivers and sports activities stars stumble upon as they close their forties?
“I know I’ve still got it,” Hamilton stated. “(It’s) just the car won’t go a bit faster. I definitely know I’ve got it still. It’s not a question in my mind. (I’m) looking forward to the end.”
Lewis Hamilton enters his ultimate race with Mercedes 7th within the drivers’ championship. (Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs)
It wasn’t the primary moment Hamilton had given this kind of bleak outlook. Later the race in Brazil, the place he’d lagged to tenth in wet statuses date Russell have been within the combine for victory previous to the purple flag, he admitted he “could happily go and take a holiday” rather of doing the overall triple-header. In Las Vegas, when the W15 got here alive within the chilly and allowed Mercedes to comb to a 1-2, Hamilton appeared downbeat that he’d no longer been the only to govern it house next qualifying indisposed in P10 date Russell was once on pole.
“These last races, maybe even the whole season, was clearly not what we expected,” Wolff stated in Qatar. “That car is a handful to drive on its worst days.”
However how a lot of that has harm Hamilton in some way that it has no longer for Russell? Wolff put a part of it all the way down to Hamilton’s using taste. “One of his strengths is how he’s always able to brake late and attack the corner, and the car can’t take it,” he stated, including that after the fondle kicks within the slow-speed corners, the disease worsens. “Then if the car slides more and it lacks grip, that contributes to (him) probably suffering more than George.”
In Qatar, Vasseur stated he was once “not at all” involved by way of the method of his incoming big name signee. “Have a look on the 50 laps that he did in Vegas, starting P10 (and) finishing on the gearbox of Russell,” Vasseur stated. “I’m not worried at all.”
The exit made by way of Ferrari this yr, improving from its mid-season hunch to position up a past due struggle to McLaren for the constructors’ identify, can even inspire Hamilton that he can re-ignite extra of his ancient method. He wired on Thursday that date his focal point left-overs on Mercedes for his ultimate weekend, there was once a herbal pleasure development concerning the upcoming bankruptcy.
“It really sparks motivation,” Hamilton stated, “and it’s a dream scenario for any driver to have an opportunity like this. I don’t take that for granted.”
Each time Hamilton hangs up his helmet and yells moment on his greatly a hit profession, this era with Mercedes would be the lasting, maximum definitive a part of his racing legacy.
When he determined in 2012 to create a trauma progress clear of McLaren, upcoming persistently certainly one of F1’s important groups, it was once scoffed at as a mistake: a step into the midfield, clear of the group that had introduced Hamilton as much as F1, and into the unknown.
It proved to be the precise progress on the proper moment. McLaren was once about to start out a decade-long moderate, date Mercedes was once at the verge of inauguration a record-breaking F1 dynasty with Hamilton as the center piece.
The progress additionally allowed Hamilton to turn into himself. His evolution from a 27-year-old one-time champion into certainly one of F1’s elder statesmen, at the cusp of his fortieth birthday with seven global titles to his identify, with pursuits and a star condition stretching some distance past this paddock, has been remarkable.
Mercedes’ British driving force Lewis Hamilton sits on his automotive, posing for a gaggle photograph along with his group forward of the Abu Dhabi GP. (Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)
At the front to Mercedes’ storage for this weekend on the Yas Marina Circuit are two immense footage of Hamilton, one from Hungary 2013 — his first win for Mercedes — and the second one from Silverstone this yr, arguably essentially the most emotional of his checklist 104 victories. Throughout it reads the message: “Every dream needs a team.”
Even the demanding situations of this yr and the trouble of a year-long see you later is not going to moderate what Hamilton and Mercedes constructed in combination.
“Nothing is going to take away 12 incredible years with eight constructors’ and six drivers’ championships,” Wolff stated. “That is what will be the memory, and after next Sunday, we’re going to look back on this great period of time rather than a season or races that were particularly bad.
“We will stay with the good memories.”
Just right reminiscences. Ancient reminiscences. So big in emotion that, when the checkered flag drops for Hamilton on Sunday evening and he hoists himself out of a Mercedes F1 automotive for the overall moment, they’re going to undoubtedly come inundation again.
Manage photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty Photographs, Clive Rose/Getty Photographs; Design: Meech Robinson/The Athletic
