‘It was pretty special’ – Mercedes reveal message that ‘emotional’ Hamilton wrote for Antonelli on driver room wall

Mercedes have shared an insight into how Lewis Hamilton left a special handwritten note for Kimi Antonelli in what will be the rookie’s new driver room, with the seven-time world champion making the gesture after saying an “emotional” goodbye to the room ahead of his exit from the team.

After his switch to Ferrari for 2025 was confirmed back in February, Hamilton faced the task of embarking on his final season with the Silver Arrows in the knowledge that certain moments with the team would be their last together.

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As such, the Briton’s realisation that he would not spend time in his room in the squad’s European motorhome again after the Italian Grand Prix sparked plenty of emotions, as Race Team Co-ordinator Stephen Lord – one of Hamilton’s closest colleagues – detailed during a special episode of Beyond The Grid.

“It's quite an interesting insight into Lewis that perhaps people don't see,” Lord explained. “It was after the race in Monza, obviously the last European round. Lewis was upstairs. He did the engineering debrief.

“In Europe we have the race base, where we have like an engineering suite on the top floor and at the back of the engineering suite, the drivers have their own rooms, so they have a room where they have massage beds and all of their kit is laid out ready. Then they have a bathroom with a shower and a toilet.

“Lewis had finished engineering. I think the engineers had left so Lewis was upstairs in the room on his own. I popped up, grabbed a couple of bits, came back down the stairs, and Lewis came down the stairs ready to leave and head home.

“He got to the bottom of the stairs and he stopped, then he turned around and he went back upstairs. I thought ‘he’s forgotten something,’ didn't think much of it. He came back down about 10 minutes later and he grabbed a guy that works for the team, Carlos, who's our Head of Race Team Logistics.

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“And you could see that Lewis was really quite emotional and he grabbed Carlos and said, ‘it's only just occurred to me, I'm never going to see that room ever again. I'm really emotional. I can't leave. I feel kind of sad to walk away from that room because I've been in that room for so many years and I'm never going to see it again.’ He was really quite touched that he was leaving it behind.”

Following this poignant moment, Hamilton made his exit while Lord went back up to the room to pack up the 39-year-old’s remaining pieces of driver kit – where he also discovered something else that Hamilton had left behind.

“I walked into the room and on the wall there’s quite a long, handwritten note,” he continued. “It was a note to Kimi and it was basically welcoming him to his new room, and it was wishing him the best of luck, saying some really nice things about the team and how, ‘if you care for them, they'll care for you because they're a great team.’

“I thought, ‘wow, what a nice thing to do.’ And actually we've had glass cut and it's now covered in the room so it will be there forever more. I thought I'd just go into the bathroom and make sure that everything's been packed away and we've got all we need.

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“I walked into the bathroom and next to the toilet, above the toilet roll holder, was ‘Lewis was here’ with a big smiley face and I thought, ‘okay, I like that.’ But the note to Kimi was pretty special.”

With Hamilton having completed his final race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, the Briton will begin his next chapter with Ferrari in 2025 while 18-year-old Antonelli makes the step up from Formula 2 to partner George Russell at the Silver Arrows.

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