The bemusement reverberated throughout the paddock. It’s tough to not overemphasise the brutal response the cut-throat System One circus – whether or not it’s media, ex-drivers or followers – had in September 2012 when, to the astonishment of everybody, determined McLaren for .
Even the needs of his father and supervisor, Anthony, had been ignored. As Jeremy Clarkson put it so tactlessly on a 2012 episode of High Gear: “Is that not a bit like transferring from Manchester United to West Ham?” And sorry Hammers followers – it was not a praise.
But six world championships, 12 years and 84 grand prix victories later, Hamilton’s daring plunge into unchartered waters was his best-ever determination. A life-changing, history-altering determination. His solely hope now will likely be that his -inspired gamble works out in an identical fashion subsequent yr.
Sunday’s in brings the curtain down on essentially the most profitable driver-team partnership within the historical past of System One, as Hamilton takes to the observe for the 246th and closing time in Mercedes overalls. A partnership, in statistical phrases, higher than Schumacher at Ferrari. Higher than Senna at McLaren. Higher than Vettel at Purple Bull.
It guarantees to be an emotional night on the finish of an emotional yr for the seven-time world champion.
“I anticipated it will be tough [this year] however massively underestimated how tough,” he stated on Thursday.
“It’s been a really emotional yr for me. I’ve not been at my greatest in dealing with these feelings. So lots of you could have seen the worst of me and one of the best of me. I’m not going to apologise for both. I’m solely human and don’t all the time get it proper.”
Self-reflection has been one in all Hamilton’s cornerstone traits lately, armed with a automotive incapable of profitable races commonly since 2021.
However one determination he most positively received proper was leaving a 15-year affiliation with McLaren for pastures new. Persuaded by the imaginative and prescient of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, appearing as Mercedes’ non-executive chairman, Hamilton gambled his peak years within the cockpit on a crew that had by no means received a world championship.
There was one forlorn yr: the debut marketing campaign in 2013. However from his win on the second race of the 2014 season in Malaysia, amid new hybrid V6 engine rules which Mercedes had clearly nailed, essentially the most dominant period within the sport’s historical past was simply getting began.
And it’s considerably becoming it ought to all finish on the Yas Marina Circuit, a decade on from and his first for Mercedes with Prince Harry and then-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger cheering him on from the storage. A season which set in movement a journey of unparalleled success and a salivating three-year intra-team battle with Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton would go on to assert six titles in seven seasons, simply lacking out to an impressed Rosberg in 2016. A person so drained after a fascinating title race that he instantly left the racing cockpit and retired. Valtteri Bottas changed the German, and .
However be it Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari or a younger expertise referred to as Max Verstappen at Purple Bull, how did Hamilton always keep forward of the chasing pack?
By reinventing the wheel.
“After I met him, Lewis had received one world championship,” James Vowles, Mercedes’ chief strategist all through the glory years and now Williams crew principal, tells The Unbiased. “However from 2013 going into 2014, he reinvented himself over the winter.
“He did that yearly. How did he do this? A change of food regimen, coaching programme, way of life and assist construction. He modified how he approached information and video and the way successfully he labored with engineers.
“He was ready to tear it up and begin once more. What I realized from him is that this tradition of whenever you maintain profitable, maintain altering. Actually, change extra. As a result of the individual behind you is much more inclined to vary with a view to win.
“Should you keep nonetheless, you fall again.”
But it surely wasn’t only for racing functions that Hamilton regarded to change and evolve. Indisputably, Hamilton’s stance as a driver who transcended his sport will likely be one in all his largest legacies throughout his time at Mercedes, amid his unrelenting push for variety and equality. And even perhaps his largest.
Whether or not it’s alternatives for ethnic minorities – a reminder: Hamilton is the game’s solely ever black driver – a push for LGBTQ+ rights in international locations that disregard such liberties or pushing again in opposition to autocracy, Hamilton’s progress as a human being and spokesperson for points past the racing line has occurred on Mercedes’ watch. Each deserve large credit score for this.
This all got here to a head in 2020 when, a month after the expansion of the Black Lives Matter motion, F1 returned in Austria and Hamilton led the grid in taking the knee. It was a strong picture, regardless of six drivers opting to not observe go well with.
The Briton, who was racially abused as a toddler at college in Stevenage, additionally arrange Mission 44 – a charity pushing for inclusivity within the motorsport world and past.
That shortened season noticed Hamilton decide up his seventh championship, placing him on par with Schumacher. Hamilton stated this week that the 2020 automotive – the W11 – was his favorite automotive. And that goes for pure velocity and its all-black livery, in a mirrored image of his off-track work.
However regardless of all of that success, his closing years at Mercedes will likely be characterised by disappointment. First in 2021, amid that mammoth title battle with Verstappen and essentially the most right here in Abu Dhabi, which in hindsight was the start of the top.
Hamilton returned, after two months away from the general public eye, in 2022 with a technology of automotive which might set off a .
For the primary time since he joined in 2013, Mercedes had received it badly mistaken.
And so we attain now, or moderately January, when Hamilton surprised the world and . The most important switch in F1 historical past will see out the 39-year-old’s time within the sport as he chases that elusive, record-breaking eighth crown. That’s all that’s lacking from his assortment now.
And what’s promising, for his loyal supporters who will observe him over to the tifosi, is that Hamilton left McLaren after they entered a interval of unprecedented failure. Solely now, as they battle an on-the-up Ferrari this weekend, are they again within the hunt. Whisper it quietly, however Ferrari do look on the cusp of manufacturing a championship-winning automotive in 2025. The longer term seems to be brighter than it does at Mercedes.
Nonetheless, we should always not let recency bias detract from Hamilton’s enduring legacy at Mercedes. A legacy of unparalleled success and an impressed insistence in doing it his personal approach.
However, most of all, he made a particular distinction, in a fashion which fully transcended his sport. Everywhere in the world, Hamilton is now greater than only a racing driver. Mercedes had been the crew who guided him to that superstardom.
