Fernando Alonso’s prediction after Lewis Hamilton’s 2012 Mercedes announcement has aged beautifully

Lewis Hamilton will take part in his final race for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend. It’s been more than 12 years since he announced he was leaving McLaren to join the Silver Arrows.

Since then, he’s achieved unprecedented success. Hamilton has won six world championships and 84 Grands Prix at Brackley – both Formula 1 records with a single team.

But it shouldn’t be forgotten that, at the time, many had serious reservations. Mercedes had finished fifth in the 2012 constructors’ championship, and only scored 37.4% of McLaren’s points.

While forerunners Brawn GP had remarkably won the title with Jenson Button in 2009, Mercedes had hovered between the midfield and the frontrunners since returning to the sport in 2010. In the three years before Hamilton joined, they only scored five podiums and one victory.

Hamilton had won his one and only world championship at McLaren in 2008. He came close to winning the title in 2010 and won three races during his final season with the team.

The Woking outfit seemed to be on the precipice of another championship. But Hamilton felt Mercedes offered the best long-term prospects ahead of the 2014 regulation changes.

Fernando Alonso knew Lewis Hamilton would be ‘much more happy’ at Mercedes

Hamilton announced that he’d signed for Mercedes in between the Singapore and Japanese GPs in the autumn of 2012. His longtime rival and former teammate Fernando Alonso immediately thought he’d made the right move.

Alonso suspected that Hamilton had grown ‘tired’ of life at McLaren, hinting that it was a challenging environment. The Spaniard departed after just one season in 2007 despite missing out on the title by just a point (and finishing level with Hamilton).

Given how Hamilton has flourished at the personal and sporting level since joining Mercedes, Alonso’s prediction aged beautifully. Four years later, the two-time champion would put his faith in the doomed McLaren-Honda project.

Meanwhile, Hamilton is now set to follow in Alonso’s footsteps by joining Ferrari. He’s looking to succeed where he and Sebastian Vettel failed by delivering the drivers’ title to Maranello.

“I understand the move,” Alonso said at the time, via Sky Sports. “Always you need some new challenges when you get tired from one situation. I think McLaren sometimes is not the easiest place to live, so I think he will be much more happy now in Mercedes than what he was in the past”

Lewis Hamilton set to prove Jenson Button wrong at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Optimism levels for Hamilton’s Mercedes farewell at Yas Marina are extremely low. That’s after he endured one of the worst races of his career at the Qatar GP.

Hamilton was eventually classified 12th, his poorest finishing position of the campaign. While he wasn’t at fault for a mid-race puncture, he has to carry the blame for a mistimed start and a pit-lane speeding penalty under the safety car.

Peter Windsor called it a ‘terrible’ evening for Hamilton. He seemed utterly dejected at his inescapable qualifying struggles too as George Russell emphatically outpaced him.

Still, Hamilton is set to prove Jenson Button wrong. Button feared Hamilton would skip Abu Dhabi and make an early exit, but the Briton has resolved to leave in the right way.