Lewis Hamilton admitted he hasn’t handled the emotional strain of his coming departure from Mercedes well at times this year.
The seven-times world champion confirmed before the season began that he would not continue with the team for a 13th year in 2025, having signed a deal to drive for Ferrari. He admitted that has caused difficult moments between him and Mercedes over the course of the year, starting with team principal Toto Wolff.
“The first meeting with Toto at the beginning of the year was awkward, of course,” said Hamilton in today’s FIA press conference. “So it was awkward from the get-go.
“The day after I took some of the team paintballing and they had just found out. So there has been loads of moments through the year. I got lots of shots [from] people, I had loads of bruises. People went in on me that day.”
Hamilton said he didn’t realise how hard his decision to leave would make life at the team this year. “I think ultimately, definitely I anticipated it would be difficult, but I massively underestimated how difficult it would be,” he said. “It was straining on the relationship very early on. It took time for people to get over, get past it.”
His form has fluctuated this year. Though he won twice in the space of three races at mid-season, he has had conspicuously poor performances in recent rounds, notably in Brazil and last week in Qatar. His qualifying has been consistently below par and last week he said he was “definitely not fast”.
He admitted he handled the situation poorly at times. “It’s been a very emotional year for me and I think I’ve not been at my best in handling and dealing with those emotions,” he said. “I think this year, and so many of you have been here my whole career, so some of you I think you’ve all seen the worst of me and seen the best of me.
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“I’m not going to apologise for either because I’m only human and I don’t always get it right. And I would definitely would say this year has been one of the worst in terms of handling in that from my side, which I’ll work on trying to be better at.
“But I hope the good and the highs far outweigh the negatives and how I’ve handled it or behaved. And as I said, I just remember the good times.”
This is only the second time in Hamilton’s 17-year F1 career that he has left a team. However he said the experience of moving on from Mercedes has been much harder than…
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