Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has denied claims Lewis Hamilton checked out during his final Formula 1 season with the squad.
Despite winning two races in 2024, Hamilton endured a difficult final campaign with Mercedes, finishing seventh and 22 points behind team-mate George Russell.
Hamilton’s reactions to performance dips played out in the public arena and he cast an unmotivated figure at times.
After a dismal Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton relayed a cryptic radio message to his team: “If this is the last time that I get to perform, it’s a shame it wasn’t great, but grateful for you.”
With three rounds remaining post-Interlagos, Hamilton’s radio message led to speculation he was considering an early Mercedes exit and at the following event in Las Vegas he revealed that was on his mind in the heat of the moment.
“In the moment, that’s how I felt,” he said. “I didn’t really want to come back after that weekend.”
“But I think that’s only natural. It’s frustrating when you have a season like this.
“Which I’m pretty sure I won’t have again, or, at least, I’ll work towards not having again.
“It wasn’t a great feeling in that moment.”
F1 journalist Ben Hunt speculated on the James Allen on F1 podcast that Hamilton had “handed his notice in at the start of the year, and he was serving his notice, he’d kind of checked out.”
The feeling was Hamilton was focused more on his now-completed move to Ferrari, as opposed to the task at hand with Mercedes.
Wolff wasn’t concerned by Hamilton’s level of resolve, however, saying to Auto Motor und Sport: “I don’t think his head was in his new team yet. Lewis is too professional for that.”
Wolff’s faith was repaid in a resounding final race by Hamilton at Mercedes, whereby a poor strategic call by the team landed him 16th on the grid in Abu Dhabi.
In response, Hamilton charged through the field to finish fourth, passing team-mate Russell on the final lap.
Wolff questions whether Hamilton is ill-suited to current F1 cars
Despite ending on a positive note, Hamilton’s 2024 performances were a far cry from the prowess he showed before 2022 when the ground effect regulations were introduced.
Indeed, Hamilton has secured just one pole position during the recent ground effect era of F1 at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
In 2024, he was comprehensively outqualified by team-mate Russell 19 to five.
That tally went five to one in Russell’s favour during Sprint Qualifying sessions and Hamilton exclaimed “I’m definitely not fast anymore,” when he finished four tenths down on his team-mate in Qatar’s Sprint Qualifying.
This has led Wolff to speculate that “This generation of car doesn’t suit Lewis.
“He brakes late and hits the car aggressively into the corners,” he added.
“The car and the tyres sometimes don’t forgive that.
“This is more noticeable in qualifying than in the race. There may have been other influencing factors as well.”
Whatever the cause, Hamilton’s qualifying downturn needs rectifying at Ferrari in 2025.
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