Lewis Hamilton, controversy with Mercedes: “In the past it wouldn’t have happened”

A long and successful partnership is likely to close under the banner of controversy.

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari will join forces in 2025, when the seven-time world champion will become an official driver for the Cavallino. His experience in Mercedes could però end with little harmony between the parties, with the Briton who week after week appears increasingly nervous and after the Singapore Grand Prix publicly polemic with the team that saw him win his last six world titles.

If the past few years have been characterized by complaints about his Mercedes’ performance, after Singapore Hamilton’s reasons for frustration focused on strategy for the Marina Bay race. Indeed, the future Ferrari driver è was the only one of the top drivers to start the race on soft tires.

"I already knew from the night before the Singapore Grand Prix that the team wanted to diversify the strategies between me and Russell,” Hamilton told an event organized by one of Mercedes’ main sponsors. “The next morning I was amazed, because in the past such a thing would not have happened. We were very close on the grid, so it didn’t make much sense to do thatì".

Hamilton even claimed that he had asked Mercedes in vain for a change of strategy: "I wanted the averages, I fought as hard as I could to get them. But the team kept saying I had to fit the softs. Then on the track I saw that everyone else had just the softs, and è it was frustrating. I had to change mine after 17 laps, and I already knew that in fact my race was over".