The 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix represents the final time Lewis Hamilton will drive for Mercedes in Formula 1.
After six individual championships and eight team titles, Lewis Hamilton leaves Mercedes having helped deliver the most successful partnership in F1 history.
Hamilton is the only driver in Formula 1 to have ever secured more than 100 pole positions and has 14 more wins than the man he replaced at Mercedes: Michael Schumacher.
However, his final few seasons with the Silver Arrows have been a struggle and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix might just epitomise his final few years with Mercedes perfectly.
Hamilton looked rapid in practice and despite being seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, looked to have a good chance of returning to the podium once last time on Sunday.
Unfortunately, nothing went to plan for Hamilton or Mercedes during qualifying and Hamilton will have to produce a superb drive through the pack to secure a decent result.
A report from F1 Insider has shared more details about the fallout from Hamilton’s Q1 exit and in particular, how team principal Toto Wolff reacted.
It’s safe to say he wasn’t happy and trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin appeared to bear the brunt of Wolff’s ire.
Toto Wolff was spotted ‘angrily yelling’ at Andrew Shovlin after Lewis Hamilton’s Q1 exit
Wolff apologised to Hamilton after the session and when speaking to the press, he said: “We need to apologise to Lewis and everyone in the team who has worked so hard to deliver a great final weekend for him here in Abu Dhabi.
“He has been quick across all three practice sessions and was looking good for a strong result tomorrow. Sadly, we totally let him down at the end of Q1.
“We made the mistake of not sending the drivers out early enough.
“That compromised both their out laps and then their final push laps as they wrestled through traffic.
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“Lewis was then additionally compromised by a bollard becoming stuck under his car. Without that, he would likely have got through, but we shouldn’t have been risking so much in Q1.”
The report from F1 Insider highlights that Wolff couldn’t control his emotions in the garage.
Wolff was spotted on TV cameras ‘angrily telling’ at Shovlin after Hamilton failed to make it through to the second session of qualifying in Abu Dhabi.
Why did Lewis Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying not go to plan?
Qualifying for the final race of the 2024 season highlighted how much the grid has converged across the last few years of this current set of regulations.
Debutant Jack Doohan was just eight-tenths slower than Charles Leclerc who topped Q1 in his Ferrari.
George Russell got slightly lucky during qualifying, but Hamilton didn’t experience that same level of fortune on his final run.
He was sent out late in the session and as drivers were forced to queue in the pit lane to avoid a penalty – as the flying Nico Hulkenberg discovered to his detriment – it meant Hamilton crossed the line with just seconds remaining to set his final lap.
The seven-time world champion was slightly quicker than teammate Russell’s time after the first two sectors before disaster struck.
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Hamilton drove into the path of a bollard flicked onto the track by Kevin Magnussen as he tried to get out of the way of the Mercedes driver.
The loss of aerodynamic performance meant Hamilton was four-tenths slower in the final sector and would have quite comfortably made it through to Q2 without that problem.
Shovlin’s job is to run Mercedes’ trackside operation and while he doesn’t make direct strategy calls during sessions, he’s one of Wolff’s closest confidantes.
They’ll both hope Hamilton can deliver a performance to remember to end his time with Mercedes on a high.
