Lewis Hamilton should end his Mercedes misery now

Briton has endured a miserable last few races, peaking with him describing his Mercedes as being like a ‘plank of wood’ at Interlagos

It was with tongue slightly in cheek that Lewis Hamilton claimed his laps of Interlagos in Ayrton Senna’s iconic 1990 McLaren were the best part of his Brazilian weekend. But he meant it, too, with the smiles and standing ovations giving way to more ennui once he had wrung just a single point out of his recalcitrant Mercedes in the race itself. “If this is the last time I get to perform,” he said to his team on the warm-down lap, “it’s a shame it wasn’t great, but grateful for you.” All of which begs the question why, in a fast-unravelling campaign, the seven-time world champion does not swerve the final three grands prix and focus on his future in Ferrari red.
In many ways, Abu Dhabi next month would be the worst possible venue for a curtain-call. Yas Marina carries the bleakest of symbolism for Hamilton, as the circuit where he was denied a record eighth world title in 2021 by former race director Michael Masi’s hugely controversial last-lap meddling. “The day that hurt the most,” he later called it. He was so distraught by what he saw as a manipulated result that he said he needed a “long time to heal”, with the pain only partially purged by his cathartic victory at this year’s British Grand Prix, his first for 30 months.
If Hamilton’s cryptic radio message to his engineers truly did signify a desire to wind up his season early, you could hardly blame him. After all, there are few more fitting places to close a defining chapter in his career than Sao Paulo, his idol’s hometown. His reverence for Senna is anything but performative: when, in 2017, the family presented him in Montreal with a replica yellow helmet – a gift to mark his emulation of Ayrton’s record 65 pole positions – he was moved to tears.
Five years later, he was made an honorary citizen of Brazil. “I feel now like I’m one of you,” he told the Interlagos crowd. As he finally took the chance to drive Senna’s title-winning McLaren in front of them, carrying a Brazilian flag in his right hand, this fabled track felt as spiritual a setting for a farewell as any.
Mentally, Hamilton appears already to have checked out. A driver fully invested in his work does not say in early November, with three races to go, that he is “looking forward to Christmas”. He sounds physically weary, too, lamenting how his car is bouncing him all over the asphalt. Why not call a halt here, then? Why grind on to Abu Dhabi, the site of his most diabolical memories, if he claims not even to care where Mercedes finish in the championship?
It is not as if he or his employers need this to be a lavish swansong. The laudations have already been offered: back in February, with the ink barely dry on his Ferrari contract, Hamilton said he was “forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto Wolff”. In turn, Wolff acclaimed the relationship with Hamilton as the most successful team-driver partnership Formula One had ever seen. This verdict is statistically accurate, with Hamilton’s six global crowns for the Silver Arrows eclipsing even Michael Schumacher’s five for Ferrari. It is a phenomenal feat, duly celebrated.
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But there comes a time, in a sport of constant innovation, when the well of sentiment runs dry. The danger, once Hamilton’s Ferrari switch was confirmed, was that this would become a dead year for him. And so it has transpired, with the one-time single-lap master finding himself out-qualified 15-6 by team-mate George Russell. Besides the emotional scenes at Silverstone, and a surprise Spa triumph in the wake of Russell’s disqualification, the past nine months have tested his patience like none before.
Making a clean break could prove mutually beneficial: while Hamilton could clear his mind ready for his reinvention at Maranello, Mercedes could give 18-year-old sensation Kimi Antonelli, their driver next season, a three-race head start. So end it now. That image of Hamilton in Senna’s machinery offers a perfect testament to his greatness – and, surely, a more appropriate final act than a reacquaintance with his demons in the desert.