After 12 seasons, 245 grands prix starts, 84 victories, 78 pole positions and six world drivers’ titles, Lewis Hamilton will make his final appearance for Mercedes this weekend. It’s going to be a wrenching goodbye for both him and the team he has been wedded to since 2013.
The 39-year-old says he is feeling ‘pretty calm’ right now, but given his decision to defect to Ferrari in 2025 was made before this season had even started there have been difficult moments as he and the Brackley squad have come to terms with their protracted divorce.
‘The first meeting with [team principal] Toto [Wolff] at the beginning of the year was awkward. Of course, it was awkward from the get-go,’ opined the seven-time champion.
‘The day after, I took the team paintballing. They had just found out [I was to leave Mercedes]. I got shot and had loads of bruises. People went in on me that day! I anticipated it would be difficult but I massively underestimated how difficult. It was straining on the relationship very early on and took people time to get past it.’
He also admits he’s ‘not been at my best’ as he has struggled to cope with the emotional toll his departure has had on him.
‘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 dealing with those emotions.
‘I think you’ve seen the worst of me and the best of me, and I’m not going to apologise for either because I’m only human.
‘I would definitely say this year has been one of the worst in terms of handling it from my side, which I’ll try to get better at.
‘I hope the highs far outweigh the negatives in terms of how I’ve behaved. I just remember the good times, and I’ve built some incredible relationships. Being there for so long, the emotions run deep.’
Hamilton is 24 points behind George Russell, often struggling to be on a par with his team-mate in qualifying and finding the Mercedes W15 slow and wayward.
There have been moments, though, when it’s been the class of the field, as their one-two victory in Las Vegas a fortnight ago proved. For Hamilton, the undoubted highlight of a season that featured two wins, was his scintillating victory in front of his home crowd at Silverstone.
He has the chance to win again this weekend for one final time with Mercedes. The lap times are likely to be tight between the McLarens, Ferraris, Verstappen’s Red Bull, and the black arrows. An 85th Mercedes win on Sunday would be a just result for Hamilton’s Herculean efforts.
The Abu Dhabi finale will decide which constructor wins the world championship, and if McLaren succeed it will be their time since 1998.
The Woking-based team are 21 points ahead of Ferrari, who are hunting their first title since 2008. Ferrari need a perfect weekend to leapfrog the leader, and probably some bad luck to befall McLaren which, on paper, has a car particularly well-suited to Yas Marina.
Carlos Sainz Jr, who is making way for Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025, is likely to miss having a race-winning car for a while, given he is moving to Williams.There are other drivers on the grid who may be saying adieu to the sport in Abu Dhabi, including Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez.
Red Bull have intimated that the Mexican, who’s been too far off Verstappen’s pace this year, should choose to bow out before he is pushed out. It’s likely Liam Lawson will be promoted to the senior seat.
F1 thrives on threats, fights and fallouts
It Is not the first time drivers have complained the same rules don’t apply to Max Verstappen but George Russell’s accusation of bullying has raised eyebrows and it will be interesting to see if the FIA keeps a close eye on the Dutchman’s temper in future.
Russell accused Verstappen of impeding him during qualifying in Qatar, which resulted in the stewards reversing their positions on the front row of the starting grid. Verstappen, according to Russell, threatened to put him in the wall, although Verstappen denied that claim.
As Max already has the title in his pocket, it’s conceivable he’d take out his enemy just to prove a point. This is the same guy who shoved Esteban Ocon in parc ferme in Brazil in 2018 because of a perceived slight, and could have badly injured Lewis Hamilton when a fired-up Verstappen (pictured) and his Red Bull ended up on top of the Mercedes at Monza in 2021.
There can be no excuses for putting the safety of other drivers at risk because of a feud. Having said that, sport thrives on fiery personalities, and the odd shove, expletive-laden radio outburst, or threat to run someone off the road is, surely, all part of the fun.
Wolff bites back at ‘yapping little terrier’ Horner
As GeorgeRussell let fly at Max Verstappen, his Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has also not held back with his views on Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner.
The two drivers have fallen out over Russell’s attempt to get Verstappen penalised for an infringement in qualifying in Qatar, a claim Red Bull chief Horner supported when he branded the Briton’s behaviour ‘hysterical’.
To say the least, Wolff is unimpressed, asking yesterday: ‘Why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? How does that come? Yapping little terrier. Always something to say.
‘There is a thing between drivers and I don’t want to get involved in that. But if the other team principal calls George “hysterical”, this is where he crosses a line for me. His forte is not intellectual psychoanalysis. How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver?’
Verstappen, to absolutely no one’s surprise, was not in the mood to back down over what he said about Russell and how he had ‘lost all respect’ for him.
‘No regrets at all, because I meant everything I said,’ he said. ‘If I had to do it again, maybe I would have said even more. I’ve never experienced what I have experienced in the stewards’ room in Qatar. That was really unacceptable.’
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