Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes and joining Ferrari for next season after winning six world championships with the team.
The British driver lifted the team’s level when he joined in 2013 and won two consecutive world championships over the next couple of years as Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated.
Mercedes have been struggling over the past couple of years since the ground effect regulations were introduced in 2022. Hamilton hasn’t been consistently fighting at the front and has been frustrated at times.
His teammate George Russell also beat Hamilton this season, particularly in qualifying, where the 39-year-old lost 19-5 over the 24-race season.
Hamilton did outscore Russell over their time at Mercedes, but that won’t be much of a consolation as most of the three years were spent off the podium.
The 2021 World Championship was one that slipped away as Hamilton agonisingly missed out on an eighth title to break Michael Schumacher’s record of seven.
Andrew Shovlin explained that there was one race during that season where Hamilton was a cut above the rest of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton made the grid ‘look silly’ as he won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in 2021
Hamilton battled Max Verstappen for the world championship, which was a brutal duel that went down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi in a controversial finish.
The seven-time world champion was in superb form at the end of the season and won three of the final four races to keep the championship alive.
He was blisteringly fast in Brazil and won the Grand Prix from 10th place after starting last in the Sprint at Interlagos as he was disqualified from Sprint qualifying.
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Shovlin explained on the Beyond The Grid podcast that Hamilton used the disqualification as motivation before dominating the race.
He said: “The car was going to be at the back. We’d had a conversation with Lewis when he was saying, ‘Well, what can we do? Can we appeal? Can we stop it?’
“He’d obviously qualified brilliantly and we said, ‘look, the best thing is we just go to the back. There’s no other option.’ And you could see this look on his face where over about five seconds, he just accepted that. And then you just saw this building determination of like, ‘right, okay, I know what I need to do now.’
“And he had the Sprint and then the main race to get from the back to the front to win it. And over those two races, I’ve never seen anyone drive so well, be so creative, so inventive with overtaking, so determined. He was just unstable. And that day, he made the others look silly.”
Hamilton created an inspiring Whatsapp group in 2021, knowing he had to overcome a 19-point deficit with four rounds to go after Verstappen won in Mexico.
Lewis Hamilton needs to be revitalised at Ferrari next season
Hamilton is joining Ferrari for next season and partnering Charles Leclerc in a formidable line-up of drivers for the Italian team.
Martin Brundle feels Leclerc is the quickest driver in Formula 1 and the Monegasque is particularly devastating in qualifying over a single lap.
After leaving Mercedes, Hamilton will have to hit the ground running as he enters a team that Leclerc has built around him since joining in 2019.
Hamilton may have concerns about his qualifying pace after struggling on Saturday’s for the past couple of years and not taking a pole position this season.
If the British driver can deliver, he may be very difficult to beat in 2025 especially if Ferrari can provide a car capable of winning races.
