Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of an eighth world title at Ferrari could be set for a major boost thanks to rumours about a surprise reunion.

 

The British Formula 1 icon, who turned 40 this week, is aiming to achieve the incredible in 2025.

 

 

Instagram posts have caused speculation that Hamilton could be reuniting with one of his most important colleagues

Instagram posts have caused speculation that Hamilton could be reuniting with one of his most important colleague:

The most successful team and driver in the history of the sport have united, and a drivers’ world title would be Hamilton’s record breaking fifth and Ferrari’s first since 2007.

 

Given recent form and Hamilton being beaten by Mercedes teammate George Russell in 2024, hopes aren’t exactly high, but a key personnel change could make a huge difference.

 

With Hamilton celebrating his 40th birthday away skiing, eagle-eyed fans have noticed his former physio and trainer Angela Cullen has been on the slopes at the same time.

 

 

The pair, who split before the 2023 season, have both posted images of themselves on top of mountains skiing on the same day which has led to rife speculation about a reunion, particularly with Cullen wearing a Ferrari red coat.

 

That might not sound like much, but let’s allow Hamilton to explain how influential she was on his career.

 

 

“People for sure won’t understand it, naturally, because they see it from a distance, but she has been one of the greatest things that’s happened to me in my life,” he said after their split.

 

“I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of people… and she’s the single hardest-working woman that I get to be around.

 

 

“She’s focused, selfless, and she makes my weekends peaceful. Every day I wake up, whatever time it is, she’s just positive – never a single day has she been negative, so that’s very, very important.

 

“I think it’s important in life to put positive people around you. You can’t be going around with deadweights, you can’t be going around with people who don’t inspire you to be better and lift you up when you’re down. You need to be around people who can do that for you, and she’s one of them.”

 

Hamilton and Cullen were almost inseparable during their seven years together with the New Zealander always by the no.44’s side in the paddock.

 

Hamilton’s away skiing for his birthday

Hamilton’s away skiing for his

And F1 fans have jumped on Cullen being on the slopes at the same time

And F1 fans have jumped on Cullen being on the slopes at the same timeCredit: @cullen_angela

In fact, his best period in F1 coincided with their time together as he picked up four of his seven championships working with her at Mercedes.

 

That ‘positive energy’ could also be hugely timely too, with Hamilton hitting new lows in 2024, despite it being a season when he ended a two-year winless streak at home at Silverstone.

 

Almost every time Mercedes showed race-winning promise during the campaign they would drop off the next session, leading to a culmination of frustrations in Brazil.

 

 

After coming home in a disappointing tenth, the Brit called his car ‘the worst it’s ever been’ and a cryptic radio message led some to think he was going to quit with three races to go.

 

“If this is the last time I get to perform it was a shame it wasn’t great but I’m grateful for you,” said Hamilton, who later confirmed he wasn’t joking around.

 

“In the moment that’s how I felt, like I didn’t really want to come back after that weekend,” he admitted.

 

“It’s frustrating when you have a season like this, which I’m pretty sure I won’t have again, or at least I’ll work towards not having again.”

 

 

Cullen could well be the boost Hamilton requires, and those in Italy will be keeping their fingers crossed that the skiing pictures were far more than a mere coincidence.

 

 

 

 

Lewis Hamilton has been crowned the winner in a shock result in our end of year awards.

 

GPFans have recently been asking for your answers to a range of different 2024 categories, aiming to reward some unsung heroes of the 2024 season.

 

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McLaren partner with Airwallex to…

 

 

With Max Verstappen clearly having proven himself to be the best driver once again, winning the acclaim of team principals and his rival drivers following a year in which he won the drivers’ title despite his team finishing third in the constructors’ title, we asked fans to vote for their best non-champion driver of 2024.

 

 

 

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Tributes roll in for F1 legend after New Years announcement

Lando Norris battled Verstappen all the way in the drivers’ championship, with he and team-mate Oscar Piastri claiming their maiden victories in the sport as McLaren won the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix in July

 

Max Verstappen claimed a fourth world title in 2024

 

Who was the best non-champion driver in 2024?

Despite the team success for McLaren, both of their drivers were snubbed in the GPFans poll, with the answers instead providing a shock winner.

 

 

Piastri claimed just three per cent of the vote, while Norris finished second with an almighty 36 per cent of the vote.

 

However, it was Hamilton who was the victor in our poll, claiming 42 per cent of the vote despite suffering one of his worst ever seasons.

 

In his last year with Mercedes, Hamilton managed to claim two grand prix victories, banishing his win drought, but could only finish seventh in the drivers’ championship, behind team-mate George Russell.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari in 2025

The 39-year-old now heads off to Ferrariin the hope of challenging once more for a so far elusive eighth world championship title, with his new team-mate Charles Leclerc claiming third in our poll.

 

Leclerc claimed three victories in 2024, his joint-best tally, and helped Ferrari catapult themselves back into championship contention.

 

Leclerc received 12 per cent of the vote, while Carlos Sainz finished with four per cent, and Russell claimed three per cent of votes.

 

 

 

Hamilton delivers heartwarming Mercedes tribute to racing legend

 

Lewis Hamilton has delivered a heartwarming Mercedes tribute to a racing legend and three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda.

 

The seven-time world champion recently embarked on a farewell tour with Mercedes as he prepares to join Ferrari in 2025, a move that shocked the F1 paddock following the announcement earlier this year.

 

Major Hamilton Ferrari change revealed as contract clause announced

 

Whilst Hamilton’s domination at Mercedes is now etched into the sports’ history, there was a time when his move to the team came as a surprise, with many believing it would not yield results.

 

 

 

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However, the 39-year-old proved them wrong and went on to earn an incredible six world titles during his time with the Silver Arrows.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton bid farewell to Mercedes in Abu Dhabi

 

Lewis Hamilton leaves behind an incredible legacy at Mercedes

 

F1 champion Niki Lauda was instrumental in convincing Hamilton to join Mercedes in 2013, where he played a key role in negotiations.

 

The 1975, 1977 and 1984 world champion was appointed non-executive chairman in 2012, and remained at the team until his passing in 2019.

 

During Hamilton’s farewell tour with Mercedes, the team posted a video to their social media where the British star delivered a heartwarming tribute to the legacy of the champion at the team.

 

“It was amazing working with him because I loved his racing spirit even at his age,” Hamilton said.

 

“I mean we’re so competitive, I’ve got this competitiveness in me that I realise now through meeting him it is never going to leave me.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton pays tribute to Niki Lauda

“Niki had that right till the end. And I loved how he was like ‘what can we do? Need more power? Okay I’m going to the board’.

 

“‘We need more money? Okay I’ll go to the board’.

 

“He was just down to fight every single second for that extra bit of time, even though he wasn’t in the car, but he was and he always has been in the car with us.”

 

 

Lewis Hamilton embraced McLaren boss Zak Brown after his last race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi

 

Mercedes race team co-ordinator Stephen Lord has revealed that he expected Lewis Hamilton to return to McLaren after his F1 stint with the Silver Arrows.

 

And he claimed that a move to Ferrari has been in Hamilton‘s mind “all along”, revealing the subject cropped up in conversation with the seven-time World Champion some years ago.

 

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari switch proves McLaren return prediction ‘completely wrong’

Hamilton announced earlier this year that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, ending his long and successful partnership with Mercedes.

 

The British driver claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man to surpass 100 grand prix wins and pole positions.

 

The only previous team switch of Hamilton’s career came at the start of 2013, when he sensationally swapped McLaren for Mercedes in one of the most surprising moves in F1 history.

 

Hamilton claimed his maiden F1 title with McLaren in 2008, but opted to replace Michael Schumacher at Mercedes – who had won just a single race since taking over the title-winning Brawn GP outfit in late 2009 – after years of underachievement with the Woking-based team.

 

Appearing on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Lord revealed that he suspected Hamilton would return to McLaren once his time at Mercedes was over.

 

Asked if he was surprised by Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, he said: “Not at all. Because I think that’s been his plan all along.

 

“A few years ago, it came up in conversation. I actually always thought he might be tempted back to McLaren, but I was completely wrong.

 

“We had a conversation years ago and he always said that he felt most drivers had a desire to, at least at some point in their career, drive the Ferrari.

 

 

“They’re the oldest, most recognisable team in the pit lane, the history and the esteem that that marque is held in, I think it’s inevitable that people would want to go there.”

 

Appearing on the Performance People podcast earlier this year, Hamilton revealed he was told his “career’s over” after electing to leave McLaren for Mercedes before it proved to be the “best decision ever made.”

 

Invited to pinpoint the defining moment of his career, he said: “It will probably have been when I decided to join Mercedes.

 

“I was in Thailand at the time, in between races after Singapore, and that’s when I made the decision.

 

“And I was like: ‘I want to take the leap of faith and I’m going to go with it, regardless of what people say.’

 

“Pretty much everyone told me to stay, but I went with my gut and my intuition and it was the best thing for me.

 

“I was with a championship-winning team. I was with McLaren, which had such a great history.

 

“Obviously Mercedes used to own half of McLaren, and so it was partly their team, but then they broke away and bought their own team and as they were trying to ramp up, they weren’t having a lot of success.

 

“I think they were the fifth or sixth-best team at the time, so they were often finishing out of the top 10, struggling to get into the top 10.

 

“As a World Champion, people were like: ‘This is the worst decision you can make, this not a great team and your career is over.’

 

“All the pundits, all the media outlets, all the fans, everyone was like: ‘Career’s over.’

 

“And then it went well and everyone’s like: ‘Oh, it’s the best decision ever made.’”

 

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 Qatar GP PlanetF1

Lewis Hamilton is on the cusp of a new era with Scuderia Ferrari.

 

Lewis Hamilton was told by ex-Ferrari boss and current F1 president Stefano Domenicali to learn the language and full integrate into Ferrari culture.

 

And Domenicali has confirmed that this exactly what the seven-time World Champion is in the process of doing.

 

Lewis Hamilton learning Italian and Ferrari culture

In a blockbuster development before the 2024 campaign got underway, Hamilton activated a release clause in his Mercedes deal to seal a move to Ferrari – effective as of F1 2025 – in order to realise a childhood dream.

 

However, if Hamilton wants his Ferrari story to be a successful one, then he was told by their former team principal Domenicali that he must fully embrace the culture. And he has seen that Hamilton is doing exactly that.

 

Speaking to Autoracer about Hamilton’s Ferrari move, Domenicali said: “He will bring a lot of interest.

 

“He is learning to speak Italian and to understand how to integrate into our culture. I told him, it is fundamental for him to be able to do this as well. In Ferrari he will find a different environment than before.”

 

Ferrari opted against renewing the contract of Carlos Sainz in order to facilitate Hamilton’s arrival, as the winner of a record 105 grands prix prepares to partner Charles Leclerc for this new Ferrari era.

 

The pairing will create an intriguing dynamic, as Leclerc – the chosen one looking to restore title glory to Ferrari after coming through their academy – goes up against an F1 icon in Hamilton who is looking to win that eighth World Championship which would move him ahead of Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.

 

And Domenicali hopes that the peace will remain.

 

“Charles will obviously have to accept that having someone like Lewis in the house will not be an easy partner,” Domenicali warned. “At the same time Lewis will definitely have the ability to transmit this positivity of his in trying to achieve his record. He has it as clear as if it were on the centre bar of the Halo.

 

“They love each other very much and I hope they will love each other again at the end of the year.”

 

While Hamilton returned to winning ways in 2024 with triumphs at Silverstone and Spa, it was a rocky road to the Mercedes finish line.

 

Not only because Hamilton turned heads with his “definitely not fast anymore” self-assessment after Qatar qualifying – Hamilton losing the 2024 qualifying head-to-head 19-5 to George Russell – but also, as he revealed, due to the internal “turbulence” generated by his decision to join Ferrari.

 

Asked by Channel 4 after the Abu Dhabi season finale if his Ferrari move had sunk in yet, Hamilton replied: “It hasn’t, honestly.

 

“I remember at the beginning of the year when I was printing off the contract and couldn’t believe that it was actually happening.

 

“It’s been a really, really, really long year. Tough to firstly go with the announcement and then obviously the relationship.

 

“Lots of turbulence, lots of ups and downs with people that I’ve been working with for many, many years.

 

“Managing that was really, really, really tough through the whole year. There’s so many people and it’s affected everybody.

 

“To go through this low, turbulent time and then come back and get to a point here where love just comes through.

 

“Beyond the upset and people [saying] ‘I can’t imagine you in red’ to now just [saying to me] ‘I wish you all the best, thank you so much for everything we’ve done’ and tears.

 

“It’s really beautiful. Honestly, I’m forever grateful to this team, every member that’s here, every member back in the factory, it’s been the honour of my life to be a part of it.

 

“I can’t believe that I’m going to be in red next year. It looks good on me, so hopefully I can make that work!”

 

A mock-up image of Lewis Hamilton in an F1 2024 Ferrari race suit against a black background with a large PlanetF1.com logo

Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025

 

Lewis Hamilton’s highly anticipated Ferrari debut could be postponed and moved away from Fiorano if the team are forced to switch to ‘Plan B’ ahead of the F1 2025 season, it has been claimed.

 

Hamilton announced earlier this year that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025, ending his long and successful partnership with Mercedes.

 

Ferrari strike up ‘Plan B’ for Lewis Hamilton’s on-track debut

The British driver claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 race wins and pole positions, following his move from McLaren 2013.

 

Hamilton, who will turn 40 next month, will link up with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari after Carlos Sainz was forced to make way for the seven-time World Champion.

 

Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari has been the subject of much intrigue, with the most decorated driver in F1 history expected to officially start work with the sport’s most successful team in late January.

 

He is expected to receive his first taste of Ferrari machinery behind a previous F1 car, with the Scuderia yet to decide whether Hamilton’s maiden run will occur behind the wheel of the team’s 2022 chassis or the 2023 machine.

 

 

F1 rules dictate that cars older than two years must be used for private testing, with teams only allowed to use their current cars to capture promotional material on so-called filming days.

 

Ferrari’s pre-season preparations have traditionally commenced at the team’s Fiorano test track, with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel taking to the circuit behind the wheel of the 2012 car ahead of his arrival from Red Bull in late 2014.

 

In January this year, Sainz and Leclerc took to the track with the 2022 car in a so-called ‘wake-up’ test session held over two days and targeted at getting team and drivers back up to speed after the winter break.

 

However, the threat of bad weather has reportedly forced Ferrari to strike up a back-up plan for Hamilton’s debut.

 

Respected Italian publication Auto Racer has claimed that Hamilton is due to drive a Ferrari for the first time on either Tuesday January 21 or Wednesday January 22.

 

However, Ferrari have drawn up plans to move the run either to Mugello, which hosted the Tuscan Grand Prix during the pandemic-affected season of 2020, or Imola, the home of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

 

Hamilton’s introductory test could even be pushed back to another day if adverse weather conditions render on-track running impossible.

 

The news comes after it emerged that Hamilton has already paid a ‘private’ visit to Ferrari’s Maranello factory ahead of his F1 2025 arrival despite being officially under contract with Mercedes until December 31.

 

Hamilton’s secret trip follows that of Sainz, signed to replace Vettel for the 2021 season, who visited Maranello in 2020 before he had formally cut ties with previous employers McLaren.

 

Ferrari announced earlier this week that the team’s F1 2025 car – codenamed Project 677 – will be launched on February 19, one day after F1’s season launch event involving all 10 teams in London.

 

Ferrari are expected to document Hamilton’s first day with the team, with a number of design details related to Project 677 surfacing over recent months – including a move to a pullrod front suspension layout.

 

A pullrod front suspension – favoured by the likes of McLaren and Red Bull – is believed to enhance airflow towards the car’s complex underbody, with the floor generating a significant proportion of the car’s overall downforce under the current ground-effect regulations.

 

The move towards a pullrod front suspension is said to have been directly influenced by Hamilton’s arrival, with his driving style closer in nature to new team-mate Charles Leclerc than Sainz.

 

Ferrari are also set to retain their divisive pullrod rear suspension layout despite the departure of former technical director Enrico Cardile during the F1 2024 season.

 

Ferrari and customer outfit Haas are the only two teams still competing with a pullrod rear suspension, with their rivals all opting for a pushrod layout.

 

It is thought that Ferrari view the pullrod rear suspension as a key factor behind the SF-24’s excellent tyre management.

 

Cardile, who announced that he will join Aston Martin in July, revealed the team found no significant performance differences between a pullrod and pushrod rear suspension layout when asked by media including PlanetF1.com at the launch of the 2024 car.

 

A revised wheelbase and adjustments to the internal mechanisms of the gearbox are also set to feature on Project 677.

 

Development of the 2025 Ferrari is being led by former Mercedes engineer Loic Serra, who was appointed to the role of chassis technical director ahead of his Ferrari arrival in October having initially been recruited to work under Cardile in May.

 

Serra is understood to be close to Hamilton, having shared the driver’s reservations over the failed zero-pod design concept pursued by Mercedes under former technical director Mike Elliott across 2022/23.

 

 

The British driver claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 grand prix wins and pole positions, following his arrival at Mercedes at the start of 2013.

 

The early announcement of his move to Ferrari left Hamilton in the unusual situation of spending the entire F1 2024 campaign with Mercedes in the knowledge that they would be parting ways at the end of the year.

 

Despite ending the longest winless run of his career with victories in Britain and Belgium, this year proved one of the most challenging of Hamilton’s time in F1 having struggled to match team-mate George Russell in qualifying conditions.

 

Russell outqualified his illustrious team-mate at 19 of a possible 24 races, leading Hamilton to concede at the penultimate round in Qatar that he is “not fast anymore.”

 

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Hamilton cut an increasingly reflective figure as the end of his Mercedes career approached, telling media including PlanetF1.com at Monza that the emotion of leaving has “been there all year” and “at every race you turn up.”

 

The 39-year-old also revealed that it was “quite emotional” and “very, very, very surreal” when Mercedes announced Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the teenage sensation, as his successor for F1 2025.

 

Mercedes have consistently denied suggestions that Hamilton had been frozen out by the team ahead of his move to Ferrari, with the seven-time World Champion afforded the same equipment and opportunities as Russell.

 

Speaking after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton admitted his final season at Mercedes contained “lots of turbulence” and “lots of ups and downs” with a number of trusted colleagues.

 

 

And he confessed to being touch by the warm goodbye he received from the team at Yas Marina, describing his time at Mercedes as “the honour of my life.”

 

Asked if his move to Ferrari has sunk in yet, he told Channel 4: “It hasn’t, honestly.

 

“I remember at the beginning of the year when I was printing off the contract and couldn’t believe that it was actually happening.

 

“It’s been a really, really, really long year. Tough to firstly go with the announcement and then obviously the relationship.

 

 

“Lots of turbulence, lots of ups and downs with people that I’ve been working with for many, many years.

 

“Managing that was really, really, really tough through the whole year. There’s so many people and it’s affected everybody.

 

“To go through this low, turbulent time and then come back and get to a point here where love just comes through.

 

“Beyond the upset and people [saying] ‘I can’t imagine you in red’ to now just [saying to me] ‘I wish you all the best, thank you so much for everything we’ve done’ and tears.

 

“It’s really beautiful. Honestly, I’m forever grateful to this team, every member that’s here, every member back in the factory, it’s been the honour of my life to be a part of it.”

 

He laughed: “I can’t believe that I’m going to be in red next year. It looks good on me, so hopefully I can make that work.”

 

Hamilton’s comments come after his former Mercedes team-mate and 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg claimed it was “so important” for the team to demonstrate that there was no favouritism towards Russell during F1

Rosberg pointed to team boss Toto Wolff’s team radio message encouraging him to catch Russell in the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi finale, with Hamilton pulling off a bold overtake on the final lap to finish fourth.

 

Appearing on the Sky F1 podcast, Rosberg said: “I’m pretty sure they didn’t favour George.

 

“One of the best times to see that was Toto Wolff’s comment in the race, when Lewis came out of the box and he was 14 seconds behind George.

 

“He said: ‘So how many seconds?’ And Bono [Pete Bonnington, Hamilton’s race engineer] said 14.

 

“And Lewis said: ‘Geez, that’s far down the road.’ Toto came on the radio and said: ‘You can do this, Lewis.’

 

“This is talking about the team-mates! ‘Oh, Lewis, you can do this!’

 

“If I was George and I listened back on this, I’d be like: ‘Toto, hey, what’s up with that? You should be neutral here!’

 

“That’s because the team were under a lot of pressure because a lot of fans, every time Lewis gets beaten by George, a lot of fans are like: ‘This is sabotage.’

 

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“The pressure was on Mercedes and I could see, for Toto, it was so important to show the world that there was no preferential treatment towards George and that they were fair because Lewis is the legend.

 

“There’s such a tension on there and it would have been really, really bad on Mercedes if there would have been any, any preference going towards George.

 

“That’s why Mercedes could never allow themselves and they went to a big extent to actually prove and keep showing that there was no preferential treatment.”

 

As Lewis Hamilton bids farewell to Mercedes – for now he hopes – he expressed his gratitude to the team and wishes for fresh success to come.

 

84 wins, 78 poles, 153 podiums and six Drivers’ titles later, the Hamilton and Mercedes partnership has reached its conclusion, as F1’s most successful driver heads off to write a fresh career chapter with Ferrari from F1 2025.

 

Lewis Hamilton hopes to return for Mercedes visit

Hamilton embarked on a Mercedes farewell tour after the F1 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, which involved a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to say goodbye to staff at Mercedes’ title sponsor Petronas, with a visit to Stuttgart followed by Brackley and Brixworth, Mercedes’ chassis and engine bases respectively.

 

And in his final Mercedes debrief, Hamilton had an emotional message for the staff at Brixworth. Tissues at the ready!

 

“You know, Mercedes has changed my life,” he said.

 

“Growing up in Stevenage, dreaming of one day being in Formula 1 and being a World Champion. And definitely back then, it was me and my two parents. I didn’t know that there would be a huge amount of people that I get to work with, who would be the ones to life me up and take me on that journey to winning something like that.

 

 

“I’m going to always be looking on the screens and seeing where you guys are. I’m always going to be wishing you all the absolute best.

 

“I believe in you. I’ll continue to believe in you. And when you do have that success, I’ll be so proud of you, to know that I was hopefully a little bit part of your dream that you’re living as well.

 

“So, a huge thank you to you all. All my love. I want to wish you and your families well.”

 

Hamilton has signed a multi-year deal with Ferrari, but looking further down the line, he hopes that he will get the chance to return to Mercedes one day for another visit.

 

 

His Ferrari switch marks the first time that Hamilton has deviated from his Mercedes association in Formula 1, with McLaren having used Mercedes power in Hamilton’s time with the team from 2007-12, which included his first World Championship triumph in 2008.

 

“And I do hope, as I said, in many years to come, I’ll be able to come back and see you all,” Hamilton declared.

 

“So, big, big thank you everybody.”

 

Hamilton will find Charles Leclerc on the other side of the garage at Ferrari, while his Mercedes replacement is teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli who steps up from Formula 2.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton endured one of the most punishing weekends of his F1 career in Qatar

 

Mercedes believe Lewis Hamilton’s limited setup changes to the W15 car after the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race likely contributed to his poor performance over the rest of the weekend.

 

Despite returning to winning ways at Silverstone and Spa, Hamilton has endured one of the most challenging years of his career in F1 2024 having been dominated in qualifying by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

 

Lewis Hamilton Qatar problems explained as Mercedes reach ‘conclusion’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

 

Hamilton’s season slumped to a new low in Qatar, where he started sixth – half a second adrift of Russell, who started from pole position for the second race in succession after a penalty for Max Verstappen – and finished a distant 12th.

 

The seven-time World Champion incurred separate penalties for a false start and speeding in the pit lane during a torrid race, with Hamilton asking over team radio at one stage if his car was broken.

 

In the latter stages, Hamilton was heard pleading with the team to retire the car with his request denied by the pit wall.

 

Hamilton, who announced earlier this year that he is to join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025, will make his final appearance for Mercedes at this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having claimed six of his joint-record titles with the Brackley-based team.

 

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Hamilton has frequently claimed to have experimented with car setups throughout F1’s ground effect era since 2022 in an attempt to help the team find a technical breakthrough with their underperforming machinery.

 

Appearing on Mercedes’ post-race Debrief show, however, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin claimed that Hamilton’s lack of changes after the mini race is likely to have cost him in Qatar as the track evolved.

 

A tweak to the sprint race rules for F1 2024 sees parc ferme regulations relaxed in the hours between the sprint and qualifying for the main race, allowing teams to adjust to the improving track conditions and identify a more ideal car setup.

 

Asked why Hamilton’s car was “underbalanced” in Qatar, and whether team or driver led the setup direction, Shovlin said: “Underbalance means too much understeer. When they say overbalance, that means they have got too much oversteer.

 

“Now, why was that the case?

 

“The balance that we had in the Sprint race on Saturday was good and if you took George’s car, he didn’t make a lot of changes between the end of the Sprint race and qualifying, because you come out of parc fermé, you go back into it for qualifying, you have this opportunity to work on the setup.

 

“The track was getting grippier and grippier, and that normally means you get more understeer in the car. That is what you would generally get.

 

“The engineers and the drivers are looking at the different runs they have done over the weekend.

 

“They are tracking how much aero balance we are carrying, what mechanical balance we have got, and they will compensate for that increased grip normally by putting a bit more front wing in, for instance.

 

“Both did that, but we do need to understand why we still ended up with too much understeer.

 

“And then during the race, we were adding more and more front wing and it was proving quite hard to dial that out.

 

“Maybe the conclusion will be that we should have shifted the setup more, but it is quite difficult to predict exactly where the grip is going to land.

 

“Going back to the original question, whose decision is it? The engineers, the drivers, they all work closely together to arrive at that.

 

“That is just the nature of their relationship.”

 

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race in Qatar, Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, raised the possibility that Hamilton’s preferred driving style is fundamentally unsuited to the ground-effect cars in place over the last three seasons.

 

He said: “I think one of his strengths is always how he’s able to brake late and attack the corner – and that car can’t take it.

 

“And then, when there’s like today where the grip comes in, that phenomenon is even more articulated and makes it even worse for him.

 

“And makes it worse for George also. And then if the car slides more and lacks grip, it comes alive.

 

“That’s a pattern feature of this car, so that contributes to him probably suffering more than George.

 

“You can see that with this generations of car, no team has really found – apart from Red Bull, maybe the last two years, but particularly this year – the solution, that they have stable performance over most of the tracks through all of the ambient conditions.

 

“There are these massive oscillations that you can see. How can it be that a Red Bull is nowhere on one day and then on the next day just very dominant?

 

“It’s the same for us: we were two seconds quicker in Las Vegas at some time in the race, George cruised in the front and everybody else fell back.

 

“And then here you see the opposite. I think it’s just that it’s so sensitive to operate in that window that when you when you try to force it, it becomes even more unstable as a platform.

 

“I don’t think it’s only Lewis’s problem. We can see that in other cars with other drivers as well that have oscillating performances.

 

“Does [Hamilton’s driving style] add [to his woes]? Maybe.

 

“But this is so subtle, also driving styles, but it’s clearly when you’re very strong on the brake you need a car that’s strong on turning in and you just hit the throttle and you need lots of traction.

 

“When the car is not giving you any of that, it’s very difficult to drive around.”