Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are contesting their final race together after an 11-year partnership in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
It is set to be an emotional weekend for Hamilton and Mercedes as they bring an end to one of the most successful partnerships in F1, having dominated most of the hybrid era together.
The 39-year-old has been at the Brackley-based team since 2013, having made the switch from McLaren, which was highly criticised. Mercedes’ domination between 2014 and 2020 vindicated Hamilton’s move, with only teammate Nico Rosberg denying the Briton a title in 2016.
Mercedes has made various tributes already to Hamilton, including a video posted to social media that showed their history together over the years and all of the success. The team has also put a special livery on the car with the names of loyal fans, while Hamilton himself is wearing a special helmet to commemorate the occasion.
The team also made a slight tweak to his W15, however, Hamilton made them change it because it was too ‘distracting’ during practice according to Ted Kravitz speaking on Sky Sports F1.
Lewis Hamilton tells Mercedes to make W15 change after getting ‘distracted’ in practice
The seven-time world champion has set the third quickest time in the final practice session ahead of qualifying, which bodes well considering he also posted good race pace in practice.
But during practice, Kravitz spotted something that Mercedes was forced to change after a radio message from Hamilton 20 minutes into the session.
Hamilton told his engineer Peter Bonnington: “I need to remove this sticker on my… inside my cockpit, please.” After some speculation over what it could be, it later transpired that it was a sticker that said ‘Every dream needs a team’ in the cockpit as part of their tributes for the weekend.
“It was placed at the bulkhead, just beyond the steering wheel lights at the top of the steering wheel,” said Kravitz.
“The Mercedes doesn’t have a windscreen anymore, when they changed their front bulkhead they didn’t have a perspex windscreen anymore.
“I can understand that it might be distracting for Lewis, because it is bang, 100%, in the eyeline of when he’s going from outside the track to the steering wheel. George still has it on his car no problem.”
Anthony Davidson ‘hopes’ Lewis Hamilton finds ‘magic’ at Ferrari after Mercedes woes
It has been a tough final season at Mercedes for Hamilton, having only achieved two race wins together at Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps.
Hamilton recently endured one of his worst races ever at Mercedes at the Sao Paulo GP, where he could only manage P10 after struggling the entire race with balance issues.
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That result also came off the back of a tough Americas run, whereby Hamilton crashed out of the US GP after two laps.
Anthony Davidson is hopeful that Hamilton will rediscover his ‘magic’ with his move to Ferrari in 2025, where he is expected to challenge for an eighth title after missing out on the feat in 2021.
