When Lewis Hamilton Wanted to “Upset the Red Team” by Giving All the Glory to Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton had been the inspirational force for Mercedes for an astounding 12 seasons. During this decade-plus period with the Silver Arrows, the Briton was fully dedicated to making them the dominant force of F1. Given his ties with Mercedes ever since he started racing cars in the early 2000s, there was little doubt he would do anything for their success.

Despite joining the Mercedes AMG F1 team in 2013 on a risky note, as it was a midfield team back then, Hamilton knew his gamble would pay off in the long term. Eventually, it turned out to be a masterstroke of a move. With the advent of the turbo-hybrid era, the Brackley-based outfit turned out to be the class of the field with Hamilton leading them to dominant championship triumphs season after season.

“I wanna take this team the furthest that it’s ever been. I wanna be a part of this journey when Mercedes are the most successful Formula 1 team in history,” he said in an interview during his heyday at Brackley. Hamilton made his wish come true quite convincingly.

With a juggernaut of six drivers’ world titles and eight constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021, Mercedes were demolishing their competition which included Ferrari. Now, it all seems quite ironic, given Hamilton has jumped ship to the fabled Italian outfit for 2025 and beyond. But there was a time when Hamilton enjoyed beating the Scarlet red cars by making Mercedes utterly successful.

“I think it would really really upset the red cars, the red team,” the Briton added.

“i wanna take this team the furthest that it’s ever been…. and i think it would really really upset the red cars, the red team”

and now he’s part of the red team ❤️

pic.twitter.com/2JpoZljl5O

— sin ⁴⁴ (@44britcedes) February 6, 2025

There is no doubt that Hamilton and Mercedes’ flawless combination broke many records during their dominant reign for eight years. However, they still couldn’t topple Ferrari’s age-old records of most drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

Ironically, Hamilton will now vie to fight for the championship with the Scuderia itself. However, it was never an overnight decision by the seven-time world champion to end his association with his beloved Mercedes team.

Cracks in Hamilton and Mercedes’ relationship

With Mercedes not providing a competitive car to Hamilton since 2022, there had been a lot of tension between the British driver and the team at Brackley. Some reports suggested instances of the engineers not paying heed to Hamilton’s feedback about the W14’s instability issues in 2023.

This was unchartered territory for both Mercedes and Hamilton, as they had always been aligned in their goals and approach towards achieving that goal. That said, the lack of competitiveness, race wins, and being out of title contention was enough to unravel the driver-team relationship.

Ferrari, on the other hand, had been building up well to becoming a title contender in the ground-effect era. In 2023-24, it seemed evident that Mercedes were in a hole too deep with the ground-effect car concept while the Italian outfit seemed to have figured out their way to stay competitive at the front of the field.

This naturally stimulated Hamilton to seriously consider switching to the Maranello-based outfit, as any champion driver would want to have a competitive car underneath rather than struggle with a team that is declining in form. Ferrari capitalized on the situation and offered Hamilton everything in their deal that he wanted as an elite world champion in the sport.

Interestingly, the Briton claimed that being a Ferrari driver was always his dream, which seems contradictory to his snarky comments against the red team during his Mercedes heyday. Regardless, he is keen to be a world champion with the Prancing Horse now.