After 12 seasons, Lewis Hamilton’s time as a Mercedes driver has come to an end.
The 2025 season will see Lewis Hamilton arrive in the paddock for the first time as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton paid tribute to Ferrari’s iconic red uniform across his final race weekend for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
His final race weekend for Mercedes was the perfect example of how his last season with the Silver Arrows had played out.
He was eliminated in Q1 after a year of being negative about his qualifying performances, although that was due to colliding with a bollard knocked onto the track by Kevin Magnussen.
However, he drove brilliantly to advance through the pack to finish fourth, including an incredible overtake on teammate George Russell on the final lap.
During Hamilton’s time at Mercedes, he went from being one of the sport’s fastest drivers to one of the most recognisable sportspeople in the world.
The seven-time world champion has more than 38 million followers on Instagram and 8.4m followers on X.
In Matt Whyman’s book Inside Mercedes F1, he writes about one incident during the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix that took him back.
It included the role Hamilton’s security team play at every race weekend when he’s always one of the biggest attractions in the paddock.
Lewis Hamilton’s security team had one ‘pretty dark’ job during F1 race weekends
The 39-year-old is admired around the world, with Hamilton particularly popular in Brazil due to his respect for the legendary Ayrton Senna.
During the race weekend at Spa, Whyman wrote: ‘Just now, the visiting bodyguard is focused on not dropping any of the gifts in his arms, from good luck charms to drawings, cards and teddy bears.
‘They’ve been presented to the driver by fans as he made his way through the paddock.
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‘Handing in the haul for safekeeping, the guy confirms he’s checked everything for trackers and thrown away the liquids.
“That’s pretty dark,” says [Adam] McDaid [Mercedes’ Head of Media and Editorial] as he finds a box for the items.
‘Hamilton’s bodyguard shrugs as if to suggest that he can never be less than constantly vigilant.’
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari will create Formula 1’s most marketable combination
Ferrari have signed Hamilton for more than just his popularity even if the 2024 campaign didn’t go to plan.
He showed on several occasions – such as in Silverstone and Las Vegas – that he still has incredible race pace.
However, Hamilton’s popularity won’t be seen as a negative for Ferrari.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Ferrari move from wage to when Mercedes knew
Ferrari’s share price rose by more than 10% when news of Hamilton’s move was announced in February 2024, via Autosport.
The British Grand Prix has been full of fans wearing Mercedes merchandise every year with people backing Hamilton rather than necessarily the team he was driving for.
It will be a strange sight to see grandstands with seas of fans wearing red all of a sudden at Silverstone.
Oliver Bearman was the last Brit to race for Ferrari but only took part in one Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia.
However, it’s Eddie Irvine who last raced under a British flag at a home Grand Prix for the Scuderia, with Hamilton hoping he can do one better than his P2 finish in 1999.
