Mercedes planning a special farewell Lewis Hamilton livery for the F1 legend's last race with the team
The Mercedes F1 team has planned a special livery for Lewis Hamilton's final race with the team at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion shocked everyone with his announcement to leave the German team in early February to join rival Ferrari in 2025.
The British driver achieved six of his seven driver titles with the Brackley-based outfit, after he joined them in 2013 replacing Michael Schumacher. He also helped Mercedes win eight consecutive constructor's championships from 2014 to 2021 as they saw the most dominant period in F1 history.
As a parting gift, Mercedes will have the names of 150 fans on the W15 livery at Lewis Hamilton's final race at the Marina Bay Circuit next month. To enter, fans will have to head to the team's official website and enter their personal details like their country, name, and e-mail. The draw would be open until 23:59 GMT on 26 November with the results of the prize draw being announced before the race.
While appearing on the High-Performance podcast, Toto Wolff revealed that he had heard "bells ringing" about Hamilton's exit two weeks before the announcement and said, via F1.com:
“I heard the bells ringing two weeks before. The old man Sainz called me and said, ‘This is what’s happening’. “And then there were a few drivers that rang me up that didn’t before, so I thought, ‘Okay, there’s something going on there’."
"I sent a text to [Ferrari boss] Fred Vasseur saying, ‘You’re taking our driver?’ – didn’t get any response, very unusual for Fred, he’s a good friend. So I saw it coming."
Mercedes team boss gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's exit not being an issue
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff stated that Lewis Hamilton leaving the team was not an "issue" for him given that he had dealt with much worse things.
In the podcast, Wolff said:
“I had much worse in my life happening, like real drama and trauma. This is not even moving the needle. Lewis is a friend and will forever be a friend – we’ve had 12 years in the team together, so that was just an unusual thought of ‘this is ending’, but not challenging in whichever way.
“So no, that wasn’t a problem. It’s just a new situation, it has risks and opportunities – risks in the sense [of] how do I inform the sponsors as quickly as possible – because it was leaking – and on the other side, what are we doing about next year?”
Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton at the German team as the latter signed for the Italian team on a multi-year deal to drive alongside Charles Leclerc.