Verstappen warns Hamilton about ‘awkward’ Mercedes goodbye

Verstappen thinks there may be problems with the timing of Hamilton’s confirmation that he will be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the season.

Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari in 2025, according to defending F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, has put the British driver in a “awkward” predicament at Mercedes.

Despite still having the entire season to go, Hamilton has already confirmed that he will be joining Maranello for the upcoming season.

After a 12-year partnership with the Brackley-based team and a lengthy career relationship with Mercedes, Verstappen indicated that the timing of the announcement was pushed: “It seemed like it [the news] was a bit leaked of course and then they had to announce it because to announce something that big that early in the season I think for sure for the rest of the year is a little bit awkward.”

“Even though you have had a lot of success together as a team, you can’t be included into everything anymore.

“But for him going to Ferrari it’s not really shocking.”

‘Deal with what you have’

Verstappen gave the following explanation for why Hamilton, who was his main opponent for the 2021 Drivers’ title, has an uncomfortable year ahead of him: “For sure he has a great relationship with everyone and especially also with Toto (Wolff). But he also knows at one point, and Toto for sure will tell him like ‘I’m really sorry, we’ve had all this success, but you can’t be part of certain meetings anymore’

“That’s normal in F1 and it’s probably a bit weird, but you’re professional enough to deal with that [as a driver].

“At the end of the day, you are professional enough to just deal with what you have.

“It’s not like they are suddenly enemies or whatever. He has achieved so many great things with that whole team that they are still behind him, it’s just you know at one point you can’t just share certain stuff. But once he is sitting in the car they will still go flat out for him to try and win races as well.”

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F1, F1 2024, FIA, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Ferrari, Max Verstappen