„Just remember the good times,“ says Hamilton

Admitting that this yr has been certainly one of his worst, Lewis Hamilton insists the highs at Mercedes outweigh the negatives.

Because the German group prepares to bid farewell to the motive force with which it has gained six drivers‘ titles, the Briton admitted that it has been an emotional yr for him.

In February, earlier than a wheel had turned in anger, got here the shock information that the seven-time world champion was leaving Brackley for Maranello.

Whereas such a transfer had been speculated about for years, based mostly on the success Hamilton had loved with Mercedes, to not point out Ferrari’s poor file with regards to using world champions, few took it severely.

Therefore, February’s announcement shocked everybody, not least his boss at Mercedes, Toto Wolff.

„The primary assembly with Toto originally of the yr was awkward,“ Hamilton advised reporters in Abu Dhabi. „After all it was awkward from the get-go.

„The day after I took the group paintballing they usually had simply discovered,“ he added, “ I obtained a whole lot of pictures and had a great deal of bruises. Folks went in on me that day.

„I anticipated it will be troublesome however massively underestimated how troublesome,“ he admitted. „It was straining on the connection very early on. It took time for folks to get previous it.“

Hamilton’s final title was in 2020, what would… ought to have been his file eighth led to controversy in Abu Dhabi in December 2021, and since then each he and his group have struggled.

Nevertheless, sheer onerous work and willpower from the German group noticed a return to kind, however alongside the best way there was a lot ache, and this yr it appeared all of the extra apparent.

„For my very own self, it has been a really emotional yr for me and I feel I’ve not been at my finest in coping with these feelings,“ he mentioned. „I feel you’ve got all seen the worst of me and the most effective of me and I am not going to apologise for both as a result of I am solely human and I am not at all times going to get it proper.

„I’d undoubtedly say this yr has been one of many worst by way of dealing with it from my aspect, which I am going to attempt to be higher at.

„I hope the nice and the highs far outweigh the negatives by way of how I’ve behaved. I simply keep in mind the nice instances and I’ve constructed some unimaginable relationships.

„Once you undergo a season along with so many individuals, not solely on these weekends you might be driving highs and lows collectively but in addition of their private lives, by marriages, by divorces, by lack of members of the family, by most cancers, by all types. You’re going by all these moments with folks and it is a actually lovely journey you go on collectively. Being there for thus lengthy, the feelings run so deep.“