Hamilton’s last dance with Mercedes a reminder of his unparallelled legacy

Hamilton’s last dance with Mercedes a reminder of his unparallelled legacy

It was a sunny morning in February 2013. Lewis Hamilton had just been unveiled as the new Mercedes driver, shedding one silver racing suit for another.

Having given Hamilton his first break, pole, podium, win and title in Formula 1, McLaren had a huge role to play in the Briton’s life. But at the same time, it also controlled, and took major decisions of his professional life, something Hamilton wanted to get rid of.

In came the offer from Mercedes, who had big ambitions and even bigger dreams. Having returned to the sport as a full-time constructor in 2010, their comeback wasn’t exactly headline grabbing apart from the fact that they had brought in the retired Michael Schumacher as one of their two drivers.

But when the German legend decided to hang up his racing suit for the second time, they shifted their focus on Briton. Though Hamilton was a one-time world champion, he wasn’t the star of the times; that title belonged to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. But the German marque knew the driver’s hunger and potential.

It took Mercedes a big pay cheque along with the influence of F1 great and non-executive chairman Niki Lauda to convince Hamilton to leave McLaren, a race-winning team, and join ‘middle of the table’ Mercedes for the 2013 season with a promise of returning to the top come the hybrid season a year later.

Hamilton had a fairly successful outing in his first year with Mercedes, earning five pole positions, five podiums and a win to beat his teammate Nico Rosberg in the drivers’ championship and also help Mercedes finish second in the constructors’ championship.

But it was in 2014 that the big gamble paid off. The engine regulations had changed that year with the 2.4-litre V8 engines giving way to new, environment friendly 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid engines.

Mercedes emerged with the fastest cars with the most powerful engines in the new era. The Mercedes drivers, particularly Hamilton, had no competition from any other driver or team, enjoying the most dominant period in history of the sport.

While Mercedes won eight successive constructors’ championships (2014-2021), the most by any team, Hamilton clinched six drivers’ championships (2014-15, 2017-2020), breaking the Schumacher-Ferrari record of five crowns (2000-2004).

In the 12 years he raced for the Brackley-based outfit, the two forged the greatest partnership ever seen in Formula 1 to race in 245 Grands Prix, winning 85 of them. When Schumacher set the records in the early noughties driving the scarlet Ferrari, nobody in their right mind would have believed that somebody would be breaking these records, and that too this soon.

Hamilton-Mercedes not just beat the Schumacher-Ferrari records but quite easily zoomed past them to achieve unbelievable numbers. The 39-year-old became the most successful F1 driver of all time with the most pole positions (104), podiums (202), wins (105) and titles (7, shared with Schumacher), putting numbers beyond the reach of other drivers.

Hamilton’s relationship with the German marque is older than his association with the team since 2013, having driven his entire F1 career powered by a Mercedes engine as McLaren too used Mercedes engines back in the day. With 355 races, Hamilton also holds the record of the most races with a single engine manufacturer – a record unlikely to be broken in the near future with the retired Kimi Raikkonen sitting a distant second with 211 with Ferrari.

But the last couple of years haven’t exactly been as rosy as it was with the combination of Max Verstappen and Red Bull emerging the most commanding team in last four years.

While Mercedes has not been the fastest car, Hamilton still managed to churn out podiums every now and then but went without a win for entirety of 2022 and 2023.

Hamilton finally returned to the top step of the podium in a dream like situation when he won his home race at Silverstone this July, in front on his adoring crowd, after an incredible gap of 945 days and 56 races. He again won a race three weeks later in Belgium, his most recent one.

But 2024 has been an unusual year for the most successful driver-team pairing. Having announced his departure to Ferrari for 2025, it was apparent that Mercedes was going to shift its focus to teammate and future George Russell, who has had a better year than the seven-time world champion. Hamilton is currently seventh in the championship, his worst position in F1 and will likely finish in this position unless all hell breaks lose in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton walked into the Yas Marina Circuit on Thursday afternoon. Twelve years later, the short hair had given way to long braids tied in a bun. The stubble has grown into a beard and the studs have been replaced with diamond earrings in addition to two nose pins.

Between Jerez and Abu Dhabi, Hamilton and Mercedes had stitched together an era like no other, an era of records that will likely stand the test of time given the magnitude of the achievements before Hamilton departs Brackley for Maranello.

“This is really it. My last race with Mercedes AMG F1. What we’ve built together over the years is nothing short of historic. People doubted me making this move in 2013, and here we are now,” reminisced Hamilton.

“The records we’ve broken, the championships we’ve won, it all speaks for itself. This won’t be the last time I thank Mercedes, but going into my final race with this team is really hitting me now. It’s really the end of an era in my life, in my career, for the team, and in F1 history.”