Lewis Hamilton’s 12-year stint with Mercedes will go down as one of the greatest sporting partnerships of all time, but not all of it was plain sailing.
The Brit joined the Silver Arrows from McLaren in 2013 in a move that was seen as controversial at the time, given that Mercedes were not necessarily a winning team back then.
Winning one race and finishing fourth in the standings in his debut year, not many would have expected the dominance that would soon follow. As the turbo hybrid era came to F1 in 2014, Mercedes got their development spot on and Hamilton took full advantage.
The 39-year-old won six drivers’ titles between 2014 and 2020 and helped Mercedes win eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships as they completely dominated the turbo hybrid era.
The championship that escaped him during his dominance was 2016, where he lost out to his teammate Nico Rosberg in a dramatic fight until the very end of the season.
Hamilton and Rosberg’s rivalry – coined the ‘Silver War’ – had been boiling over the last couple of seasons before reaching breaking point in 2016.
Lewis Hamilton was ‘upset’ over Mercedes’ instructions during his title battle with Nico Rosberg
The two came together numerous times across the year – most notably at the Spanish Grand Prix. Heading into Malaysia, Hamilton had won six races to Rosberg’s five and was leading the race when he suffered an engine failure and was forced to retire.
At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg had almost certainly wrapped up the title as Hamilton led the race. Wanting to avoid a battle between the two on track, Mercedes engineer Paddy Lowe instructed Hamilton to pick up the pace to win, to which the Brit replied that he was winning the race and was happy where he was.
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Speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff reflected on that ‘catastrophic’ period for Hamilton and the two created a ‘solid bond’ after resolving the 39-year-old’s frustrations over the situation.
“I mean, the end of the year was really not good. He was leading the race in Malaysia, had an engine failure. Catastrophic, that would have given him enough points to win the world championship,” he said.
“And then we tried to overmanage the situation in Abu Dhabi, the championship was pretty much resolved and rather than leaving the two out there to race each other, and even if that meant punching into the traffic, we tried to make it super correct and he was upset about that.
“At the end, the team won the championship and the drivers’ championship, so we reflected on that a few weeks later. We spent, I don’t know, many, many hours with each other discussing the situation.
“And I said to him ‘listen, do you want to continue racing with Mercedes?’ And he said yes and I said ‘well I couldn’t imagine anybody else than having you in the car, so if we decide here that this is a mutual issue of ours, we need to sort it out.’
“And I think we left that afternoon with a solid bond.”
What has Nico Rosberg said about Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari?
After spending 12 record-breaking years with Mercedes, Hamilton will head on a fresh adventure with Ferrari next season on a multi-year deal.
While it is one of, if not the most exciting driver transfers in F1 history, many have expressed some concerns surrounding the move and whether Hamilton will be able to perform with the Maranello outfit.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Ferrari move from wage to when Mercedes knew
The Brit has struggled in the last three years to extract the most from his car during the ground-effect era, particularly this year. Hamilton was comprehensively beaten by George Russell in 2024 and suffered his lowest finish in hi F1 career with seventh in the standings.
Rosberg says Hamilton is ‘100%’ worried about carrying his poor form from Mercedes to Ferrari, which he will certainly want to fix as he goes up against Charles Leclerc.
Rosberg thinks Leclerc will beat Hamilton at Ferrari, which is expected given the Monegasque driver has been well-established there since 2019. But Hamilton’s vintage performance in Abu Dhabi proves he still has the ability to perform, and many will be eager to see if he can show it as F1’s most successful team.
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