One more 58 laps in the Mercedes: After twelve years it threatened to be a bitter farewell for Lewis Hamilton – but the record world champion got everything out of it before switching to Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton didn’t really belong there, but anything was allowed that day. The record world champion parked his Mercedes on the home straight in Abu Dhabi after the last exit, climbed onto the hood and bathed in the long-lasting applause of the huge main stand. Fourth place to say goodbye to the Silver Arrows – somehow the record world champion was still a winner that evening.
“That was fun again,” said Hamilton, who started from 16th place. In just three months he will begin a new racing life as a Ferrari driver, but at first things got philosophical on the Mercedes team radio. The Englishman looked back on twelve years together and his six world silver titles.
“We dreamed alone, but together we achieved so much,” he said, “what started as a leap of faith ended up being a journey into the history books.” In fact: in 2013 Hamilton came to the team in Brackley as a one-time world champion, and from 2014 onwards an unprecedented era followed.
Mercedes won the Drivers’ World Championship seven times in a row, only one of these triumphs went not to Hamilton, but to Nico Rosberg. The star even won the title as best team eight times in a row. “I love you,” Hamilton radioed to the command post.
The dominance only ended with the rise of Max Verstappen and Red Bull and, above all, with the rule revolution of 2022, and since then it has been a mostly difficult time. This last year in particular, 2024, was complicated, marked by sporting failures and also by discord. Hamilton’s move to big rival Ferrari had been known since February, but that didn’t make things any easier.
The finale was at least a conciliatory one. Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff even wished his long-time winning driver much success in his future career as a Ferrari man – under one condition. “If we can’t win,” said the Austrian, “then you should win.”