The shock and bemusement reverberated throughout the paddock when the information broke. In actual fact it’s tough to not overemphasise the brutal response the cutthroat Method One circus – whether or not or not it’s media, former drivers or followers – had in September 2012 when Lewis Hamilton left McLaren for Mercedes.

Even the needs of his father and supervisor, Anthony, had been ignored. As Jeremy Clarkson put it so tactlessly on a 2012 episode of Prime Gear: “Is that not a bit like transferring from Manchester United to West Ham?” And sorry Hammers followers – it was not a praise.

But six world championships, 12 years and 84 grand prix victories later, Hamilton’s daring plunge into unchartered waters was his best-ever choice. A life-changing, history-altering choice. His solely hope now shall be that his Ferrari-inspired gamble works out in the same model subsequent 12 months.

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Sunday’s last race of the 2024 season in Abu Dhabi brings the curtain down on probably the most profitable driver-team partnership within the historical past of Method One, as Hamilton takes to the observe for the 246th and last time in Mercedes overalls. A partnership, in statistical phrases, higher than Michael Schumacher at Ferrari. Higher than Ayrton Senna at McLaren. Higher than Vettel at Pink Bull.

It guarantees to be an emotional night on the finish of an emotional 12 months for the seven-time F1 world champion.

“I anticipated it might be tough [this year] however massively underestimated how tough,” he stated on Thursday.

“It’s been a really emotional 12 months for me. I’ve not been at my finest in dealing with these feelings. So a lot of you’ve gotten seen the worst of me and one of the best of me. I’m not going to apologise for both. I’m solely human and don’t all the time get it proper.”

Self-reflection has been one among Hamilton’s cornerstone traits lately, armed with a automotive incapable of successful races frequently since 2021.

However one choice he most positively bought proper was leaving a 15-year affiliation with McLaren for pastures new. Persuaded by the imaginative and prescient of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, performing as Mercedes’ non-executive chair, Hamilton gambled his peak years within the cockpit on a crew that had by no means received a world championship.

There was one forlorn 12 months: the debut marketing campaign in 2013. However from his win on the second race of the 2014 season in Malaysia, amid new hybrid V6 engine rules which Mercedes had clearly nailed, probably the most dominant period within the sport’s historical past was simply getting began.

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And it’s considerably becoming it ought to all finish on the Yas Marina Circuit, a decade on from clinching his second world championship and his first for Mercedes with Prince Harry and Hamilton’s then-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger cheering him on from the storage. A season which set in movement a journey of unparalleled success and a salivating three-year intra-team battle with Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton would go on to assert six titles in seven seasons, simply lacking out to an impressed Rosberg in 2016. A person so drained after a charming title race that he instantly left the racing cockpit and retired. Valtteri Bottas changed the German and performed the position of the proper teammate.

However be it Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari or a younger expertise referred to as Max Verstappen at Pink Bull, how did Hamilton continuously keep forward of the chasing pack?

By reinventing the wheel.

“After I met him, Lewis had received one world championship,” James Vowles, Mercedes’ chief strategist all through the glory years and now Williams’ crew principal, tells The Impartial. “However from 2013 going into 2014, he reinvented himself over the winter.

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“He did that yearly. How did he do this? A change of food plan, coaching programme, way of life and help construction. He modified how he approached knowledge and video and the way successfully he labored with engineers.

“He was ready to tear it up and begin once more. What I discovered from him is that this tradition of whenever you hold successful, hold altering. In actual fact, change extra.  As a result of the individual behind you is much more inclined to vary with a purpose to win.

“In the event you keep nonetheless, you fall again.”

However it wasn’t only for racing functions that Hamilton regarded to switch and evolve. Indisputably, Hamilton’s stance as a driver who transcended his sport shall be one among his largest legacies throughout his time at Mercedes, amid his unrelenting push for range and equality. And maybe even his largest.

Whether or not or not it’s alternatives for ethnic minorities – a reminder: Hamilton is the game’s solely ever black driver – a push for LGBT+ rights in nations that disregard such liberties or pushing again towards autocracy, Hamilton’s development as a human being and spokesperson for points past the racing line has occurred on Mercedes’ watch. Each deserve big credit score for this.

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This all got here to a head in 2020 when, a month after the expansion of the Black Lives Matter motion, F1 returned in Austria and Hamilton led the grid in taking the knee. It was a strong picture, regardless of six drivers opting to not comply with go well with.

The Briton, who was racially abused as a toddler in school in Stevenage, Herts, additionally arrange Mission 44 – a charity pushing for inclusivity within the motorsport world and past.

That shortened season due to the pandemic noticed Hamilton decide up his seventh championship, placing him on par with Schumacher. Hamilton stated this week that the 2020 automotive – the W11 – was his favorite automotive. And that goes for pure velocity and its all-black livery, in a mirrored image of his off-track work.

However regardless of all of that success, his last years at Mercedes shall be characterised by disappointment. First in 2021, amid that mammoth title battle with Verstappen and probably the most contentious of endings right here in Abu Dhabi, which in hindsight was the start of the top.

Hamilton returned, after two months away from the general public eye, in 2022 with a era of automotive which might set off a close to 1,000-day winless run.

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For the primary time since he joined in 2013, Mercedes had bought it badly flawed.

And so we attain now, or moderately January, when Hamilton surprised the world and determined to maneuver to Ferrari. The largest switch in F1 historical past will see out the 39-year-old’s time within the sport as he chases that elusive, record-breaking eighth crown. That’s all that’s lacking from his assortment now.

And what’s promising, for his loyal supporters who will comply with him over to the tifosi, is that Hamilton left McLaren after they entered a interval of unprecedented failure. Solely now, as they battle an on-the-up Ferrari for this 12 months’s constructors’ title this weekend, are they again within the hunt. Whisper it quietly, however Ferrari do look on the cusp of manufacturing a championship-winning automotive in 2025. The longer term appears brighter than it does at Mercedes.

Nevertheless, we must always not let current occasions detract from Hamilton’s enduring legacy at Mercedes. A legacy of unparalleled success and an impressed insistence in doing it his personal means.

However, most of all, he made a particular distinction, in a way which fully transcended his sport. Everywhere in the world, Hamilton is now greater than only a racing driver. Mercedes had been the crew who guided him to that superstardom.