Lewis Hamilton emerged from the smoke of his donuts in Abu Dhabi, knelt down next to his Mercedes and patted the side of the car.
It might not have been the fairytale result they wanted, but he and Mercedes had still signed off on a high. A Q1 exit in part due to a bollard wedging itself under his floor made for a tough Sunday outlook, but Hamilton was at something approaching his best with a measured drive through the field, capped with a beautiful move around the outside of teammate George Russell on the final lap to take fourth place.
“Every moment that I’ve got in the car this week I’ve known that it’s one of the last,” Hamilton said. “It’s been really, really clear and really hard to let go. I think when I stopped the car I just wanted to embrace the moment, because it’s the last time I’m going to step into a Mercedes and represent them.
“It’s been the greatest honor of my life. They’ve powered every race, every pole position, every win we’ve had together, every championship, so I think when I knelt next to it … it was just giving thanks. Firstly, thanking my own spirit for not giving up and continuing to push, thanking everyone that powered and built that car; I’m proud of everyone.”
It all came down to this — one last moment with the car, a sign of reverence for a team turned family. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
The fact that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has been known for so long means the shock has subsided, with the Briton likening it to living with a partner for a year after announcing you would be breaking up, but he and Mercedes’ final race together really is a landmark moment in Formula 1 history.
At the end of 2012 — when Hamilton had only been in F1 for five years but felt like a McLaren lifer — he took the brave step to leave his comfort zone in search of a team that would offer a chance of more personal freedom and a front-running car.
“Obviously, I remember meeting Niki [Lauda],” he said. “And I remember making the decision … It definitely wasn’t as painful and difficult as this year has been in terms of the emotions. I think because it was at the end of the year, it was much quicker and there wasn’t enough time for it to really settle in for anyone, I think, within the team.
“This one is much more emotional because I’ve been with the team so long and we’ve been through so much together.”
His decision to move teams over a decade ago was like searching for the holy grail, and Hamilton certainly found it at Mercedes.
Many before failed in that quest. Fernando Alonso is one such driver who is so often cited as moving teams in search of a happy home and never quite being in the right place at the right time.
But for Hamilton and Mercedes it was a perfect fit. An organization where he had a teammate in Nico Rosberg who would push him and ensure it wasn’t simply his team, but also where his faith in making the move had further galvanized a workforce that was getting ever closer to becoming a true contender.
When Hamilton started with Mercedes, he was still maturing. Turning 28 ahead of his first season, you could have expected him to be in his prime, but this was a driver who still had plenty of developing to do on and off track. We just didn’t know it at the time.
Entire seasons went by with Hamilton and then-teammate Nico Rosberg seemingly inseparable. It was a time of great development, culminating in a championship battle that showed great restraint, even on the losing side. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
The 2014 season had a double-points finale but it wasn’t required as the gap between the two Mercedes drivers was just 17 points before Hamilton wrapped up title number two. The third was much more emphatic, but having won the championship early in Austin, allowing Rosberg the opportunity to win the three remaining races — the first time Rosberg had beaten his teammate in three consecutive races that both had finished — created momentum that would prove tough to halt.
Four more wins to start the season set Rosberg on his way, and Hamilton’s crown was at risk. A retirement in Malaysia was particularly costly, but the potential for such an issue to be so significant came from earlier results.
Yet it was the race that saw Hamilton lose out on the title that also showed the level he operates on. The way he was able to manipulate pace and back Rosberg up into chasing traffic was highly impressive, as he never went too far with his approach to that particular title scenario.
Hamilton was irked at Rosberg retiring that winter, because he didn’t get a right of reply to regain his crown against the defending champion. But regain it he did in dominant style, taking four in a row to stand alongside Michael Schumacher on seven championships, breaking the German’s record of F1 victories in the process.
It’s easy to be swayed by recency bias, but it should not be overlooked that even after missing out on the 2021 title in such devastating fashion, and struggling with the new generation of car, Hamilton’s 2024 finale overtake on Russell during the final lap in Abu Dhabi ensured he outscored his highly-rated teammate over their three years alongside each other.
The standards Hamilton set at Mercedes mean that stat still represents a return to form after he’s been far from his best. He admits he struggled with it, especially as the year drew on with the knowledge of a fresh start on the horizon.
For a relationship that always seemed quite close, 2024 brought a whole new set of challenges for Hamilton and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. Steve Etherington/Motorsport Images
“The first meeting with Toto at the beginning of the year was awkward, of course,” Hamilton said. “It was awkward from the get-go, to the day after when I took some of the team paintballing, and they had just found out. I got lots of shots from people, loads of bruises — people went in on me that day!
“I think ultimately I anticipated it would be difficult, but massively underestimated how difficult it would be. It was straining the relationship very early on and took time for people to get past it.
“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. I think this year — so many of you have been here my whole career, so you’ve all seen the worst of me and seen the best of me and I’m not going to apologize for either because I’m only human and I don’t always get it right — I would definitely say this year’s been one of the worst in terms of handling that from my side, which I’ll work on trying to be better at.
“But I hope the good and the highs far outweigh the negatives and how I’ve handled it or behaved. I just remember the good times. I’ve built some incredible relationships.
“If you imagine, when you’re going through a season together with so many people, not only on those race weekends where you’re riding the highs and lows together, but in their personal lives — through marriages, through divorces, through loss of family members, through cancer, through all sorts — you’re going through these journeys with these people. It’s a really beautiful journey you go on together, and being [together] so long, the emotions run so deep.”
Those emotions will now really hit as Hamilton prepares to walk into Maranello in the near future and start a brand new phase of his career. Just as Schumacher and Ferrari will forever be the memorable partnership overshadowing his late spell at Mercedes, it will be almost impossible for Hamilton to produce anything at the Scuderia that overshadows what he and Mercedes achieved together.
It really is the end of an era — one that may never be matched.
