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Laurence Edmondson, Senior Writer, F1
Mercedes would celebrate Lewis Hamilton winning an eighth world title with Ferrari next year as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of its own championship success, team principal Toto Wolff has said.
“If we can’t win, you should win,” Wolff told Hamilton over team radio following the pair’s final race together with Mercedes at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s fourth place finish marked the end of a 12-year partnership with the team in which he has won six of his seven world championships and 84 of his 105 race wins.
Next year Hamilton will race for Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc, while Mercedes will replace the seven-time champion with rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“We will be competitors [next year] and I said if we can’t win, we will cheer for him and an eighth championship,” Wolff said after Sunday’s race.
“But obviously the team [Mercedes], the drivers, the brand — that is the main priority to win, and we’re going to give it everything we have.”
Hamilton drove from 16th on the grid to fourth in his final race for Mercedes, taking advantage of an alternative strategy that allowed him to push until the chequered flag and overtake teammate George Russell, who started sixth, on the final lap of the race.
Hamilton’s lowly grid position was partly due to a bollard — dislodged by Kevin Magnussen‘s Haas in the final sector of the lap — getting stuck under his car ahead of the final two corners of his qualifying lap.
Wolff believes Hamilton had the pace to fight for one final race win in Abu Dhabi had it not been for the unfortunate incident.
“I always try to be analytical and if the bollard hadn’t been in our way yesterday then we could have fought for victory,” he said. “On the other side, he said to me ‘we’ve had so many wins and so much success, these last few races don’t change how we feel about it.
“He drove like a world champion today from P16. We played the long game and finishing fourth, driving away from the red bull. That was a statement of a world champion.”
Wolff plans to maintain a strong relationship with Hamilton next year despite the move to Ferrari.
“We said we’re going to work hard at maintaining the relationship,” he added. “Fierce competition on the track but if the individuals want the relationship to continue beyond competition we will do so.
“We still play our sports sessions — where we are both so competitive and try to beat each other — and ride a bike [together].”
Next week, Hamilton will visit Mercedes’ title sponsor, Petronas, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as well as Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany before visiting the team’s two UK-based Formula 1 factories in Brixwoth and Brackley.
Mercedes has said the visits will be a celebration of Hamilton’s career with the team.