ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Stooped beside his silver and black Mercedes W15 automobile on the principle straight of the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton paused to take in the second.
It was the ultimate time after 12 seasons, 246 grands prix, 84 race wins and 6 drivers’ world championships, making it the longest and most profitable driver and staff partnership within the historical past of F1, that he could be alone along with his Mercedes automobile. In February, he’ll be racing in pink for Ferrari.
Balancing on his toes and along with his forearms resting on the sidepod, helmet nonetheless on, Hamilton bowed his head and took a while to consider the journey he and Mercedes had been on collectively. The great, the dangerous. The highs, the lows.
“I simply wished to embrace the second as a result of it’s the final time I’m going to step right into a Mercedes and signify them,” Hamilton stated within the media pen after the race, eyes glistening. “It’s been the best honor of my life.”
The overriding emotion in that second beside the automobile was gratitude. “I used to be simply giving thanks,” Hamilton stated. “Firstly, thanking my very own spirit for not giving up, for persevering with to push, and thanking everybody that powers and builds that automobile. I’m happy with everybody.”
Twenty-four hours earlier, it felt like Hamilton’s final blast within the silver automobile could be a tough one. Mercedes made a mistake by mistiming his final qualifying run in Q1, leaving him a lowly sixteenth on the grid. Toto Wolff, the staff principal, apologized to Hamilton for an “idiotic” mistake that will make his race a lot, a lot more durable.
Within the post-qualifying debrief, even because the engineers and strategists rued the error, Hamilton reminded them of all the nice moments they’d loved collectively. He was nonetheless hopeful of ending on a excessive, offering a swansong tribute to the staff that has given him a lot professionally and personally.
And Hamilton did precisely that, delivering a memorable fightback to log out at Mercedes in Abu Dhabi.
From sixteenth, he made up a handful of positions on the opening lap because of incidents forward earlier than sitting on the fringes of the factors. By operating the alternate tire technique, the plan was at all times to run deep on the arduous tire earlier than pitting, setting Hamilton up for a ultimate cost to the road. After biding his time and letting the automobiles forward pit, he began shifting into place for an honest factors haul. Hamilton’s engineer, Pete Bonnington, got here onto the radio towards the top of the primary stint to say there was a potential third-place end on the playing cards, in accordance with Mercedes’ information.
Hamilton emerged from the pits in seventh place with recent medium tires, able to bear down on the automobiles forward on older, slower hards. For one ultimate time, Bonnington delivered the catchphrase that it was time for Hamilton to push, one which has inspired the Briton to say wins and poles all through their time collectively.
“OK, Lewis, it’s hammer time!”
Lewis Hamilton began P16 on the Abu Dhabi GP and completed P5. (Photograph by Luca Martini / SOPA Pictures/Sipa USA)
“When he instructed me, I used to be like, I can’t keep in mind the final time he instructed me ‘hammer time,’” Hamilton stated post-race. “I keep in mind I instructed Bono to say hammer time again within the first 12 months collectively. I used to be like, ‘Don’t inform me simply, ‘go quicker,’ simply inform me, ‘It’s hammer time,’ and I’ll know what it’s!’”
As at all times, Hamilton obtained the memo. He rapidly picked off Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly earlier than being instructed there was a 14-second hole to his teammate, George Russell, forward in fourth place. The pair went into Abu Dhabi tied on factors from their three seasons collectively. This final stint would settle the intra-team battle. Hamilton stated it “took perfection” to catch Russell within the ultimate levels.
It went all the way in which to the final lap. On the radio, Wolff instructed Russell to keep in mind the state of affairs, which was a mild reminder to maintain issues clear. Russell was powerless to maintain his teammate behind anyway when at Flip 9, the identical nook the place Hamilton noticed Max Verstappen draw back to the championship three years in the past and deny him a historic eighth title, Hamilton swept round Russell outdoors and moved forward. A courageous, sensible overtake.
“I solely caught him proper at that final lap, and I used to be like, it’s now or by no means,” Hamilton stated. Russell thought it was “fairly a becoming strategy to end with Lewis, only one second aside after these three years” and was happy to see his teammate finish in type. “He deserved it,” Russell stated. “The staff deserved to provide him that send-off.”
As he turned by the ultimate few corners, the sky already lit up with fireworks to honor Lando Norris’s win, Hamilton soaked within the final moments as a Mercedes grand prix driver earlier than crossing the road. The radio messages with Bonnington and Wolff on the cool-down lap have been full of emotion, Bonnington seemingly in tears. The top had arrived.
Hamilton was constructive and reflective after his ultimate Mercedes race. (Joe Portlock/Getty Pictures)
Submit-race, the analytical facet of Wolff contemplated that, with out the bollard getting caught beneath Hamilton’s automobile in qualifying, he may’ve been capable of battle for victory. Hamilton instructed Wolff to as a substitute take into consideration the 84 wins they’d already achieved collectively.
“These previous few races, they don’t change how we really feel about it,” Wolff stated. “He drove like a world champion at present from P16. We performed the lengthy sport and completed fourth, driving away from the Crimson Bull. That was a press release of a world champion.”
Hamilton was additionally glad to complete a difficult 12 months on a excessive. Regardless of wins at Silverstone and Spa, his first victories since 2021, seventh place nonetheless marks his lowest championship end in F1, having struggled to gel with the tough Mercedes automobile all year long. The subtext of his pending transfer to Ferrari, introduced initially of February, underpinning all the pieces this 12 months additionally introduced its personal problem.
“It’s been a extremely turbulent 12 months, in all probability the longest 12 months of my life, I’d say,” Hamilton stated. “We’ve recognized from the start that I’m leaving, and it’s like a relationship — whenever you’ve instructed whoever the counterpart is that you just’re leaving, however you’re residing collectively for an entire 12 months. Plenty of ups and downs, emotionally. However we completed off with a excessive at present.”
The one feelings Hamilton felt post-race have been constructive. He’d accomplished his celebratory donuts on the start-finish line, permission given to him as a part of the FIA’s post-race procedures, after which gone again to the Mercedes storage to have a good time along with his staff, so a lot of whom have been desirous to get one ultimate image collectively. A long-lasting reminiscence for all their success. All of the historical past they’ve written.
Hamilton performs a burnout after the Abu Dhabi Method One Grand Prix. (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP through Getty Pictures)
The entire weekend had been about that. On Thursday, Hamilton took numerous his engineers and mechanics, together with Bonnington, for a scorching lap concerning the Yas Marina Circuit. Mercedes then held a staff occasion on Thursday night time that appeared again on Hamilton’s time at Brackley and paid tribute to all their success. Hamilton had no concept it was taking place and was genuinely touched by the shock.
“That was tremendous emotional,” he stated. “I ain’t obtained no extra tears, actually. The whole lot got here on the market.”
That didn’t cease Sunday from being soaked in emotion. Regardless of the challenges of this 12 months and the lengthy, awkward goodbye earlier than he strikes to Ferrari, a fierce rival Hamilton and Mercedes have labored tirelessly to defeat, there has at all times been an underlying respect and affection for all they’ve completed collectively. The message from Wolff and the Mercedes board members in Abu Dhabi to Hamilton was that he would at all times be part of their story and, extra importantly, their household.
When Hamilton made the choice to give up McLaren for Mercedes again in 2012, many thought it was the fallacious transfer. Few may have predicted their success. Even fewer that the connection would’ve lasted so lengthy and run so deep.
As Hamilton put it on the cool-down lap, “What began out as a leap of religion became a journey into the historical past books.” What a journey it has been.
Prime picture: Sipa USA