Last Updated on December 8 2024, 12:34 pm

Lewis Hamilton is about to begin his final Grand Prix for the Mercedes Formula One team and his German sponsor since the age of thirteen. The seven times champion will next year experience his first non-Mercedes powered F1 car at Ferrari and drive alongside Maranello’s protege Charles Leclerc.

The bombshell of Hamilton’s move to the Scuderia was dropped before the season began although there were hints of unusual actions gong on behind the scenes. Team boss Fred Vasseur had indicated to the Italian media at the Ferrari Christmas bash he was happy with both his drivers and would like to extend both their contracts.

Then come January 25th, Ferrari announced a new deal for Charles Leclerc, but the lack of news about Carlos Sainz was conspicuous. In less than two weeks Lewis move to Maranello was revealed along with the fact that it was the Ferrari group president John Elkann who had personally brokered the deal.

 

 

 

The long farewell

Hamilton was then faced with the long farewell to Mercedes over the longest F1 campaign in history. There was joy in Silverstone as he broke his 56 race long winless streak which began that fateful night in Abu Dhabi 2021. Lewis was to stand on the top step of the podium again two race weekends later, but this time he had finished the race behind team mate George Russell who was disqualified.

Once known as the master of the one lap, Hamilton has suffered this year at the hands of his team mate. Russell is now 19-5 ahead of Lewis in Grand Prix qualifying and in the Sprint version the score is 5-1 to the junior driver.

In the championship Lewis has only been beaten by a team mate before George on two occasions. Jenson Button overcame him at McLaren in 2011 and Nico Rosberg pipped Lewis to the F1 drivers title before deciding to retire. Coming into the Mercedes team, Russell in his debut season beat the former world champion, although many put this down to Hamilton licking his wounds from the titanic struggle with Max the previous season.

This year George has suffered a greater loss of points through no fault of his own than Lewis, the DSQ in Spa for example which made a 32 point swing in favour of Hamilton. Yet George will finish the year again ahead of his team mate for the second time in three seasons, something ever done before by a Hamilton team mate.

The secret revealed why McLaren is so fast in Abu Dhabi

 

 

 

Leclerc will beat Hamilton

Lewis has been offered the use of Enzo Ferrari’s old house, something only ever offered to the revered Michael Schumacher. In Abu Dhabi, Nico Rosberg was asked which of the two Ferrari drivers would come out on top next year. 

“If you take today, then definitely Charles because he will be on a similar level to George Russell, which is kind of the best of the next generation level although Verstappen is a little higher again. Lewis is just struggling at the moment and we don’t really know why,” said Rosberg.

“If it’s as of today, then Charles will beat him in the same way George Russell is beating him. But Lewis is the greatest of all time, so we still give him the benefit of the doubt that he can be back to his usual best and then he should be ahead of Charles at the end of the year.”

The year has taken its toll on Hamilton which was evident in the post race interviews back in Brazil, where he suggested he might not turn up for the final three Grand Prix weekends of the year. This weekend too has been challenging for Hamilton and with the media hype in full flow, a qualifying disaster was not what he needed.

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Wolff incandescent

The team failed to get Lewis out on time for his final run in qualifying one which meant he was forced to start his lap in the dirty air of the car ahead. Then as Kevin Magnussen dived out of the way of the oncoming Mercedes, the Dane clipped a plastic bollard which fell under Hamilton’s car.

Lewis crossed the line in P18 although grid drop penalties for Leclerc and Albon will see him start his last race for Mercedes down in sixteenth place. This was the third exit from the first qualifying session in the last six races but Toto Wolff’s ire was saved for his engineers.

“I’m so angry – it’s a disgrace to say goodbye to him like this,” a visibly frustrated Wolff told reporters. “This shouldn’t happen in a world-class team like ours. We’ve let Lewis down.”

“We made the mistake of not sending the drivers out early enough,” he admitted. “That compromised both their out-laps and their final push laps due to traffic. Lewis was further compromised by a bollard underneath his car, but the real problem was our poor decision making. It’s inexcusable.”

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Hamilton reset

Hamilton himself, renowned for his composure, struggled to hide his disappointment. “I’m so far behind. I thought I’d be fighting for the podium, but now I have to hope for points,” he lamented.

As the dust settled, reports emerged of tensions within the Mercedes garage. Cameras caught Wolff in a heated exchange with Andrew Shovlin, the team’s technical director. Whilst ‘Shov’, as he’s known, doesn’t make direct strategy decisions, he plays a key role in the team’s operations, making him an immediate target for Wolff’s frustration.

According to F1 Insider, Wolff was seen “shouting angrily” and verbally attacking Andrew Shovlin after the Q1 exit. The incident highlighted not only the seriousness of the mistake, but also the immense pressure on Mercedes to deliver for their departing star.

The chaotic qualifying session exposed cracks in Mercedes’ decision-making process. With the grid becoming increasingly competitive under the current regulations, even minor miscalculations can have significant consequences. In Abu Dhabi those mistakes proved costly.

Hamilton will hope Ferrari will create a re-set moment for his career, yet as Daniel Ricciardo has proven a number of older drivers have struggled with getting the best out of the new ground effect cars, which continue in 2026.

Verstappen reveals what happened with George at drivers dinner

 

 

 

Flavio turns the tables on Doohan

Flavio Briatore is both a maverick and a force of nature within the Formula One paddock, his rise to management and team ownership was astonishing in its pace. Briatore attended his first F1 weekend in Australia in 1988 and declared he had little interest in the sport.

Luciano Benetton appointed Flavio commercial director of his family owned and named F1 team and when the management was fired soon after, Briatore was promoted to being the managing director and he set about making the team competitive.

Crashgate in Singapore 2008, where Nelson Piquet Jnr was instructed to put his car into the wall so as to benefit team mate Fernando Alonso, saw Flavio thrown out of Formula One, but earlier this season he was appointed by Renault as a special advisor to the Alpine team….READ MORE