Mercedes explain why they were keen to finish Hamilton's ‘absolutely incredible’ chapter with the team on a high

Mercedes Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin has explained how the team were intent on making the 2024 season “one to remember” amid the news prior to the campaign getting underway that Lewis Hamilton would depart for Ferrari at the end of the year.

It was confirmed in February that Hamilton had signed a multi-year deal with the Scuderia starting in 2025, meaning that his long partnership with the Silver Arrows will reach its conclusion after 11 seasons together.

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While Hamilton and the Brackley-based outfit have enjoyed huge success – with the seven-time world champion having claimed six of his titles with the team – the past two years had proven more challenging, with Hamilton going without a win in 2022 and 2023.

However, amid a recent upturn in form, Mercedes have again tasted victory in 2024. George Russell took his second win in F1 at the Austrian Grand Prix, while Hamilton stood on the top step of the podium one week later for an emotional long-awaited triumph during his home event at Silverstone.

Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast, Shovlin reflected on the joy of seeing the 39-year-old perform so strongly in the wet-dry race.

“It was classic Lewis,” Shovlin commented. “It was just nice seeing him do what he does best, which is working on that gameplan through the race. We talked a lot about what the weather might look like.

“We were well aware we may face showers, that you would have to stay out there on slicks, and he was well briefed on that. At that point where a lot of people came in for the early inter stop and got it wrong, Lewis was saying ‘no, it's fine. I'm staying out.’

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“It was nice when that sort of decision-making between the team and the driver is just working perfectly and you're able to call all those big strategy decisions spot on.”

Pushed on whether he had ever witnessed any self-doubt in Hamilton amid his and Mercedes’ tough spell, Shovlin responded: “I think the whole team has had a period of that. When we launched our third bad car in a row, we were all wondering, ‘why have we made that mistake and how have we done that again?’

“It does have you questioning what you're doing. I think the fact that we haven't had a competitive car made it difficult for Lewis because he is a driver who is just born to win races. It's been a tough few years for him, having had so many difficult results.

“It's not like he's had all bad races because he's got George, who's an incredibly fast driver and a very difficult person to beat, and Lewis has had his fair share of races where he's been ahead of George. It's just that we weren't able to win because we didn't have the car to win.”

While Hamilton’s time with the squad will come to an end at the close of 2024, Shovlin says that the whole outfit have been keen to make sure that their final year together is a positive one.

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“When Lewis announced he was going to Ferrari, all of us felt like: ‘well, let's make this year one to remember and let's go out with something to celebrate,’” he explained.

“The entire team was hoping that this would be a year that we could get back to winning races and have some results, because it would be a real shame if that absolutely incredible chapter of Lewis' career that is at Mercedes, were to finish with three winless seasons on the trot.

“We're happy for him, we're happy for the team. There's nothing that we want more than for that chapter with Lewis to finish with a happy ending.”