Mercedes F1 technical director James Allison believes Lewis Hamilton’s exit from the crew “couldn’t have been extra effectively dealt with”.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton waved time on his illustrious 12-year Mercedes profession on the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix final weekend forward of his blockbuster swap to Ferrari for 2025.
Hamilton turned in a surprising drive to return by means of the sphere from sixteenth and end fourth forward of teammate George Russell in an emotional last look with the Silver Arrows.
Whereas Allison hoped for extra of a “fairy story ending” for Hamilton and Mercedes, he mentioned the 39-year-old Briton couldn’t have dealt with himself higher.
“I believe it will be very exhausting to summarise such a posh set of emotions,” Allison mentioned.
“We might after all love this complete season, not to mention the final race, to be extra of a fairy story ending to a partnership that has set all of the benchmarks in Formulation 1. It might have been becoming if we might have completed on the rostrum on the very least or ideally on the highest step, however that was to not be.
“That mentioned, I believe it couldn’t have been extra effectively dealt with by Lewis and by the crew and I believe that owes an enormous quantity to the respect that there’s between Lewis and the crew and the massive quantity of appreciation for all the pieces we now have achieved collectively.
“Qualifying was a tough time for Lewis on this occasion together with his run-in with the bollard. He was disillusioned, we have been much more disillusioned for him and but within the debrief afterwards after we have been down within the mouth he was telling us, “Look, put your chins up, we’ll profit from tomorrow and keep in mind all of the occasions after we’ve received this proper collectively.”
“I believe that’s what it looks like. We’ve got had some tough seasons not too long ago however over the span of this relationship no different driver-team partnership has come near matching what we now have accomplished collectively and it has simply been a incredible run for all of us and we couldn’t want him extra effectively than we did on that final day collectively.”
Hamilton’s week-long Mercedes farewell tour
Lewis Hamilton
After ending his Mercedes profession on monitor, Hamilton launched into a tour to say his goodbyes to the German producer’s staff and sponsors previous to his Ferrari transfer.
Hamilton stopped off at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on Tuesday to go to Mercedes title sponsor Petronas. He addressed 1,000 employees there and later went to a fan occasion attended by 3,000 folks for a Q&A.
“To come back right here for the final time as a Mercedes driver has introduced up quite a lot of feelings,” Hamilton admitted.
“It’s clearly unhappy in a single respect but in addition stunning to have the ability to have fun all the pieces we’ve accomplished along with our Petronas colleagues and the Malaysian followers.
“It’s all the time so humbling to return right here and see the help.”
On Wednesday, Hamilton visited Mercedes’ Stuttgart headquarters earlier than finishing his farewell tour again within the UK on the F1 crew’s factories in Brackley and Brixworth.
