George Russell shares emotional farewell message for Lewis Hamilton as 39-year-old gets ready for his final race with Mercedes
Mercedes driver George Russell shared an emotional farewell message for his teammate Lewis Hamilton as the latter prepares for his final race with the German team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend. The seven-time F1 world champion would be leaving the Brackley-based outfit to join Ferrari next year.
The partnership of Hamilton and Mercedes has been immensely successful in terms of race wins and championships. The British driver won six of his seven driver's titles with the German team and guided them to eight consecutive constructor's championships from 2014 to 2021.
George Russell, who joined the team in 2022, has pushed Lewis Hamilton during their three years as teammates, scoring the same amount of points, 685 each. In fact, Russell has had more pole positions and race wins while Hamilton got on on more podiums.
In a video shared by Mercedes on their social media platform, X, the young Brit unveiled a special helmet for the weekend in Abu Dhabi and spoke about his admiration and a previous memory of the 39-yea-old. He said:
"So it's the last race of the season And of course, it's Lewis's last race with Mercedes. I thought as a kid who looked up to Lewis and was chasing an autograph, I thought It'd be nice to do a past and present. It's crazy how time flies as I remember this day like yesterday, chasing his signature back in 2008 and then standing on the podium together.
"Bit surreal how time has flown by and these three years together and a nice bit of animation of the two of us on the back. I think it's pretty cool, let me what you think," he added.
Lewis Hamilton speaks about his abiding memory with Mercedes
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stated that he would take "the smiles" of the people in the team as his abiding memory in his final race with the German team.
In his pre-race press conference, the 105-time race winner said:
"I think it's the smiles when we've had the success. I think it's those moments. Like I remember one particular engineer, for example, I remember our first win in Australia in 2014, I think it was Australia, and I just remember him being in tears when we were on the podium.
"It's those moments that I take with me. It's the emotions that we had in Silverstone this year. It's all the good bits. Naturally, you mostly remember the good bits," he added.
Lewis Hamilton is currently seventh in this year's World Championship, with 211 points to his name, 24 behind sixth-placed teammate George Russell. The 39-year-old won two races at the British Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. He finished 12th in the penultimate race of the season in Qatar.
Lewis Hamilton is set to partner alongside Charles Leclerc on a multi-year deal with Ferrari from next season.