BREAKING; The seven-time F1 Champion has finally part ways with his team Mercedes AMG Petronas….
The time is right for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to go their separate ways
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton finished 10th in Brazil, while George Russell was able to fight up front.
Lewis Hamilton’s anonymous Brazilian Grand Prix, as George Russell challenged for the win, shows it’s the right time for Mercedes and the seven-time F1 Champion to part ways.
Hamilton will leave Mercedes after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in just over a month’s time, as he sets off for pastures new with Ferrari, having signed a deal to change teams during last winter.
Lewis Hamilton’s mixed day in Brazil
“If this is the last time that I get to perform, it’s a shame it wasn’t great, but grateful for you,” was Lewis Hamilton’s plaintive radio message as he returned to the pits following Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix – an unclear message in terms of meaning, but an acknowledgment – the latest one – of emotion in his final weeks with Mercedes.
Sunday was a day of two halves for Hamilton, having had a spin in his hero Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/5B before the race – a ‘pinch-me’ moment if ever there was one for him.
“It’s very, very emotional, naturally,” said Hamilton after climbing out of the car having waved the Brazilian flag to the joy of the home crowd as he drove the iconic machine around the Interlagos circuit.
“I was just revisiting my childhood as I was watching [Ayrton] race here as a kid. Hearing that sound and… watching him drive here, winning that race, I just couldn’t believe that I just had that chance to do that, and it was really the greatest honour of my career.
“To do it here in front of this beautiful crowd here in Brazil, who stood out in the rain all day yesterday, and then have been here since 4 am or 3 am this morning… A very, very special day and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who made this happen.”
But that moment, behind the wheel of a piece of F1 history almost the same age as himself, proved to be the high point of Hamilton’s weekend as the race turned into “one of the most difficult races of the season”.
Struggling for balance, consistency, and comfort – the W15 simply would not comply with what Hamilton wanted from it, and this was evident from his driving – he finished 10th from his 14th-place grid slot. It had been an uncharacteristically subdued race, which included him being overtaken with ease in a sublime move by the rookie Franco Colapinto.
The difficult day led to Hamilton’s above radio message, a forlorn farewell to some of his garage mates of over a decade, some of whom won’t work directly with Hamilton again due to crew rotation for the final triple-header of races.
It all feels very different to the highs of mid-summer, as Hamilton ended his long winless streak with an emphatic and triumphant win in front of a jubilant home crowd at Silverstone – finally putting to rest the ghosts of that traumatising day in Abu Dhabi to return to the pinnacle of F1. A few weeks later, he did it again, at Spa, although did have some fortune as George Russell’s car fell foul of the technical rules by the smallest of margins.
Lewis Hamilton: I have to take accountability
But, aside from that brief spell in which Mercedes appeared to figure out their W15, it’s been a season of misery for Hamilton.
F1 2024 was always going to have a different feel to it, given his pending split with the team in order to join Ferrari, but the sense that Hamilton was treading water wasn’t evident for most of the year. Nor was there a sense that Mercedes was giving any less than trying to restore glory and joy to a driver with whom it has enjoyed so many triumphs.
However, in the latter half of the season, the mood has changed. The W15 became more cumbersome, more recalcitrant, following the updates at Spa and, almost immediately, the prospect of podiums vanished as Ferrari stepped back up to the plate. But while the car’s dip has been noticeable, Hamilton’s demeanour had dipped further.
This was particularly evident at Monza, the final European round, as Kimi Antonelli was confirmed as Hamilton’s successor. The long-awaited departure from Mercedes, which seemed so intangible back in January when he signed for Ferrari, had become reality. Seeing his team celebrating its driver line-up, without him involved, obviously struck Hamilton hard – and he didn’t try to hide away from these emotions much either.
This was evident from his social media posts, in which he shared images of a darkened engineering truck – an environment in which he and the team plotted the plans that made both sides true behemoths of F1 – a home away from home, a comfortable refuge.
Everything he does from now on is the last time he’ll do it with Mercedes after 12 years together. Regardless of how battle-hardened and tough you are, the prospect of a new and scary challenge is frightening, particularly when Hamilton is taking on a challenge that could, perhaps, even now be beyond him.
As I wrote after Monza, the first signs of Hamilton’s age catching up with him have been hinted at – his qualifying pace relative to Russell has dropped off. Hamilton no longer seems quite as able to drive around problems with a car as he once could and, in Brazil – a circuit at which Hamilton has excelled in the past – he could only watch on as Russell outperformed the Mercedes to take the lead and challenge near the front.
With Russell unaffected to the same extent by the same problems Hamilton encountered, the seven-time F1 World Champion admitted it’s a “million-dollar question” as to why things aren’t working out for him and said, “It doesn’t feel good. Obviously, it’s devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season, but all I can say is we’re trying coming into the weekends.
“But it’s definitely not acceptable. It’s definitely not good enough. We have to take accountability. I have to take accountability, but I’m doing the best with what I’ve got.
“The car has been the worst this weekend, and I don’t know what it is. We’re gonna have to find out what it is, but, still, the mechanics did a great job.”
With his Mercedes tenure whimpering out, Hamilton showed where his mind is at coming into the final three races.
“I just put my focus on something else,” he said.
“I’m not fighting for the championship. Doesn’t matter, really, where we finish in the championship.
“I don’t care if I finish ahead of [team-mate] George [Russell] or behind George. It doesn’t make any difference to me. I just want to keep the car out the wall and try to score points if I can for the team, if I can finish, whatever.
“If they give me a car that doesn’t bounce off the track in the next few races, then hopefully we can get a better result. But yeah, looking forward to Christmas.”
Hardly the words of a driver giving their all. Having fought for the big prizes on so many occasions, languishing in seventh in the Drivers’ Championship and the team in fourth in the Constructors’ means Hamilton is struggling to find the motivation for the bigger picture. As a consequence, Hamilton’s goals and Mercedes’ aren’t quite in sync for their current performance level.
It’s time for a fresh start for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes
With things no longer clicking for Hamilton and Mercedes, it’s evident the two sides could benefit from a fresh start. With time no longer on their side, there’s no impetus to pour all their resources into fixing Hamilton’s performance issues and, whether consciously or not, Hamilton is no longer firing on all cylinders.
This was evident in years past when he won a title – his imperious form would tail off, allowing others to have a sniff of a chance at taking wins in a season that was otherwise a Hamilton whitewash. But the dynamic is very different heading into F1 2025.
With Mercedes having taken its destiny into its own hands by trusting in protege Kimi Antonelli alongside the impressive Russell, Ferrari may be feeling some trepidation about next season.
At this moment in time, it’s difficult to argue that Hamilton is the better choice over the formidable Carlos Sainz and, once marketing and brand considerations are put aside, his current inability to exploit the maximum of his package would appear to weaken Ferrari’s driver pairing – Hamilton’s has never quite been able to put Russell firmly in his place, and this dynamic has only shifted ever more in Russell’s favour over their three seasons together.
Hamilton, pairing up with Charles Leclerc at a team that implicitly understands and venerates the Monegasque, is facing a huge challenge – not only to get the best from himself in a completely new and alien environment, but to navigate the politics of a team that doesn’t revolve around him and isn’t building a future around him.
Leclerc is coming into his peak years and, if the car is there, is ready for a full title challenge – he’s not there to learn from Hamilton, nor to guide and help him. He will be a formidable opponent for Hamilton, and that’s assuming the British driver is at his best – the current pale imitator is not what Ferrari has signed up for.
With Hamilton having gone stale at Mercedes, perhaps no longer feeling the love of the challenge, it’s the right time for a split. Thankfully, it hasn’t reached the point of a souring relationship, as is always the danger with these things, and Hamilton and Mercedes can part on warm and friendly terms. Another season of this, and both sides would likely “become the villain” in each other’s eyes.
Over the winter, can Hamilton get the fire back in his belly for a title fight with Ferrari? Biology is against him and, as contemporary rival Sebastian Vettel showed, it can be very difficult to keep the motivation up once the flames turn to embers.
If he can’t, and Leclerc proves to be a clear step ahead, Hamilton’s career is in danger of stuttering out in a sad and unbefitting fashion.
