“I Didn’t Enjoy the First Part of the Race”: Lewis Hamilton Reveals His Struggles in Final Race for Mercedes

In his last-ever race for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton bowed out in style. Despite things becoming rather difficult for him owing to the poor qualifying result in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton piled on a massive recovery drive to edge out his teammate George Russell to seal P4. A memorable ending to a memorable time spent with the Silver Arrows.

On the outside, the race looked smooth and enjoyable. But Hamilton revealed afterward that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Starting from P16, the opening laps posed a massive challenge for the seven-time World Champion as he struggled to clear traffic.

“I didn’t enjoy the first part of the race when everyone started on the mediums and I was on the hards,” he explained. Hamilton was concerned that the team had gotten his race strategy wrong but it all came to pass on his final stint.

Sir Lewis Hamilton’s full post-race interview with Billy Monger and Steve Jones for Channel 4.

Can’t remember the last time Lewis did a walking interview through the paddock after a race, this is so nostalgic

[@FiftyBucksVT] #F1 || #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/ibYiBFzHkI

— sim (@sim3744) December 9, 2024

The 39-year-old detailed the handling problems he had faced with the W15 — particularly the understeer. However, he kept his head down and delivered a superlative lap when prompted by his race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington. It was one final call for ‘Hammer time’ for the Briton.

Once on the medium tires, Hamilton looked incredibly strong, quickly positioning himself behind Russell, who had started in P6. He became one of the fastest drivers on the track, ultimately executing a stunning pass on the younger Mercedes driver during his final lap as a driver for the Brackley-based squad.

Hamilton missed out on farewell win

Hamilton’s 2024 season was difficult. He was already dejected by incidents that plagued his races in Sao Paolo last month, and then Qatar a week before the finale. However, at Yas Marina, things went from bad to worse. He got knocked out of Q1 owing to a stray bollard and a strategy mistake made by his team.

From thereon, salvaging the weekend was always going to be an uphill battle. However, with the pace he showed on Sunday, it was evident that had he not qualified in P18, he could have challenged for the win. Toto Wolff certainly believed so.

“Without the bollard getting in Lewis’s way yesterday in qualifying, I think he could have fought for victory,” the Mercedes Team Principal said. That said, his legacy with the team will always stand strong. He leaves Mercedes with 84 wins to their names.