LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Lewis Hamilton is looking back on an “amazing journey” and the most successful partnership in Formula 1 history as he prepares to bid farewell to Mercedes this week and join Ferrari.
The move offers a new start for the 39-year-old Hamilton, who’s had a difficult end to his last Mercedes season. Ferrari’s first task next year might be to get him back on form.
“I don’t think we’re going to end up on a high,” Hamilton said Sunday after finishing 12th in Qatar in another tough race which saw him get penalties, a puncture, and even ask Mercedes for permission to retire the car. Two days earlier, he said he was “definitely not fast any more” after struggling again in qualifying.
Hamilton’s last race for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday will bring down the curtain on a 12-year stay with the team. He won six of his seven world titles with Mercedes, the most by any F1 driver with a single team.
As an all-time great and the sport’s only Black driver, Hamilton’s influence extends far beyond the F1 grid.
Hamilton shook up F1 with the shock announcement in February that he would join Ferrari in 2025 — a decision he even kept secret from his parents — and the prospect of leaving Mercedes has overshadowed this season.
“I’ve had all year to think about it, so there’s been those highs and lows through the year. I can’t predict how I’m going to feel next Sunday after the race, or the days to follow, or at Christmas time,” Hamilton said last week.
Hamilton said he would miss the “family” atmosphere at Mercedes and will leave with warm memories, including of Niki Lauda, the former F1 champion who played a key role in bringing him to the team and who died in 2019.
“There’s many, many great moments. Moments with Niki, amazing conversations, arguments,” Hamilton said. “It’s been an amazing journey together, one that I’ve genuinely loved.”
The last time Hamilton switched teams, he found it hard to stay away from his old employer. Hamilton recalled the incident in 2013 when he mistakenly drove into McLaren’s pit at the Malaysian Grand Prix, in his second race after leaving for Mercedes.
“I remember when I joined this team it was strange driving past my old team in the pit lane, to the point that I stopped at theirs at one point,” he said.
After an emotional victory at his home British Grand Prix in July ended a 945-day wait for a win, Hamilton took another win at the Belgian Grand Prix when his teammate George Russell finished first but was disqualified. Since then, though, Hamilton has placed behind Russell in 10 of 12 races, including sprints.
Qualifying has been Hamilton’s biggest problem, forcing him to try to make up places on race day.
“When you’re always back where I am (on the grid), it makes it very hard, almost impossible, to be competing for wins,” he said last week.
Hamilton is missing one potential chance to drive the Ferrari this year in the testing session after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He said it’s not possible under his contract with Mercedes but he didn’t want to start his Ferrari career that way, anyway.
It’s likely Hamilton will get take the wheel behind closed doors at Ferrari’s famed Fiorano test track early next year.
“I know (Ferrari team principal) Fred (Vasseur) wanted it to happen. For me, I was in two minds. Driving the red car for the first time in Abu Dhabi does not excite me. In a perfect world you’d get to drive and not be seen and do the first rollout next year,” he said. “Am I missing out on something? For sure.”
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