Lewis Hamilton’s 12 Year Journey With Mercedes Comes to an End

Lewis Hamilton after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix completes his 246th and last ever race for Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team. 

After over a decade, the seven-time world champion will leave the Silver Arrows to don the Ferrari red in the 2025 season. Taking another huge step in his career before hanging up his helmet for good.

During his time at the Brackley based team, Hamilton became the most decorated F1 driver of all time. With 84 race wins, 78 pole positions, 153 podium finishes, six Drivers Championships and eight Constructors Championships.

The last time Mclaren won the Constructors Championship (1998), Ferrari then went on win it the next year. Will this mean Lewis’ first year in red be his eighth drivers title?

Hamilton joining Mercedes became the best partnership the sport would see in its history, however was a bold move at the time as he joined a struggling Mercedes team in 2013. Lewis secured four race wins with Mclaren in 2012 season however, Mercedes’ only victory in 2012 came from Nico Rosberg at the Chinese Grand Prix which was the first Mercedes win since 1955.

This then raised eyebrows as it seemed Lewis’ chances of winning anymore races never mind a drivers championship were gone as Mercedes were a midfield at the time, many believed he made a mistake.

However it was anything but. The Brit became the most dominant driver in the hybrid era. With being able to overcome challenges from all three teammates during his time at Mercedes, Rosberg, George Russell and Valtteri Bottas. However it wasn’t just his teammates that was competition. This was clearly shown with his rivalry that spurred with Sebastian Vettel from 2017-2019, beating him to the drivers title all three times.

Hamilton went on to win his seventh Drivers Championship with ease in the 2020 season, tying the record with Michael Schumacher, however hasn’t been able to win his eighth since, due to new rival Max Verstappen.

Due to the Regulations in 2022, Mercedes had lost their once dominant car performance, and after losing the drivers championship in such a gut-wrenching way in 2021, the pain for Hamilton would only get worse. As the W12 was a car for Lewis to forget. This pain continued throughout the 2023 season, as Hamilton came third in the drivers championship.

This season Hamilton won two races, Belgium and his home race. After such hard loss over the past two years, and being on the brink of not winning in nearly 1000 days, winning the Silverstone Grand Prix was meant to be and was an emotional one.

His last race for Mercedes was a fighting send off, after after starting P18 due to an incident with a bollard in qualifying, he quickly fought up the grid on his medium tyres for 35 laps, after pitting his racing engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington said his infamous catchphrase: “OK Lewis, it’s hammer time.” Hamilton then went on to finish the race in P4 after a dramatic overtake on the last lap of his Mercedes career on teammate George Russell.

Hamilton after his final race with Mercedes said: “We dreamed alone, but together we believed.”