Sat between Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto for Thursday’s FIA news conference at Interlagos, Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula One world champion, did nothing to hide his love for Brazil.
Wearing a pair of baggy pants in the colors of the Brazilian flag, he lit up upon being asked about his excitement for the race and returning to the country where he was made an honorary citizen in 2022.
“I love coming here,” Hamilton said. “I’ve been really excited about the trip, and just getting back. Every opportunity I have to spend time here, you learn more about the culture. You’re able to engage more.”
Brazil holds a special place in Hamilton’s heart. It was the home of his hero, Ayrton Senna, the late F1 legend and three-time champion. Hamilton will get to drive Senna’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B at Interlagos on Saturday in what he said would be an “emotional experience.”
It has also been the site of some of his finest F1 moments. Hamilton clinched his first championship in 2008 at Interlagos, making an overtake at the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. In 2021, he fought back from being excluded from qualifying to take his third victory at the legendary track, going from last on Saturday to a win on Sunday.
But going into this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton’s hopes are more low-key. He has only four races to go before his move to Ferrari for 2025 — a switch that looks increasingly attractive as the chances of ending his time at Mercedes with another win grow all the more slim.
“It’s been a very turbulent year,” Hamilton admitted on Thursday. “I think we always arrive with confidence and with a positive mental attitude, but the car is just … I don’t know how, I’m sure it’s similar for the other drivers. There’s glimpses of hope, and then things swing back and forth, whether it’s the tires, whether it’s the aero.
“So you never know what you’re going to get. (I) always feel like Forrest Gump when I say that.”
Mercedes thought 2024 would be the year it finally broke through and understood the struggles that had blighted its form through the previous two seasons, ones that proved sobering after its record-breaking domination of F1 between 2014 and 2021 came to a sudden halt.
The summer European races offered optimism. George Russell scooped victory in Austria after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clashed in the closing stages. Hamilton won for the first time in two-and-a-half years at Silverstone in an emotionally-charged result. Mercedes signed off for summer at Spa with a 1-2 on the road — Russell was later disqualified for an underweight car, giving victory to Hamilton — which signaled that it was back among F1’s front runners.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc leads Lewis Hamilton on track during the Mexico City Grand Prix. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Since then, that form has been absent. While McLaren’s surge continued and Ferrari recovered from its mid-season slump to become a serious threat in the constructors’ championship, Mercedes stopped being a factor. Its upgrades, chiefly a new floor that it hoped would improve the balance of the car, didn’t yield much of a step forward. Since F1 returned from the summer break at Zandvoort, the team has scored just one podium, Russell’s P3 in Baku, thanks to the late crash between Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz.
That’s not to say the pace hasn’t been there at times. In sprint qualifying for the United States Grand Prix only two weeks ago, Hamilton and Russell were in the mix for pole before being stymied by a yellow flag. The trend of late: Mercedes starts fast in practice on Friday but then slides behind McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull as the weekend progresses.
“I think it’s (been) a battle all season that we seem not to be able to extract more performance when the track grips up,” Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal, explained in Mexico.
“Some of the uglier behavior comes out, the three-wheeling, the bouncing, the instability when a car starts to really pick up speed in the high speed, is a pattern that we’ve seen. That is something that we need to get on top of.
“We have a direction for next year, but obviously we see the glass half empty at the moment. That’s why we need to optimize those last four races. What is it we can learn?”
Some costly accidents have hindered Mercedes in recent races. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Hamilton’s replacement for 2025, crashed hard just five laps into his F1 practice debut at Monza. Russell then shunted in Austin at the end of sprint qualifying before a second big crash in a week during practice for the Mexico City GP.
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The incidents have left Mercedes working to understand if its Austin update, including a new floor, dialed in some unpleasant characteristics to the car that contributed to Russell’s incidents. But Wolff noted that Antonelli’s crash was in the old-spec car. “These cars are so on the knife edge that it will be an interesting experiment in Brazil to see whether there is high-speed instability or a low-speed factor,” he said.
It has also set Mercedes back from a development standpoint. “In cost cap land, that’s a tricky situation, so these three shunts put us on the back foot,” Wolff said. “Certainly the one that happened (in Mexico) was massive. We had to opt for a completely new chassis. That is a tremendous hit on the cost cap.”
Wolff admitted it forced Mercedes to “dial down what we put on the car,” as it puts resources toward repairing parts instead of developing new ones. “We will be having two upgrade packages in Brazil, two floors, but that’s basically it,” he said. “There’s nothing else that’s going to come.”
At a time when McLaren and Ferrari were especially a step ahead of Mercedes — it was P4 and P5 in Mexico, 44 seconds behind race winner Carlos Sainz — the lack of further development isn’t a huge surprise. The team is a comfortable P4 in the constructors’ standings, Red Bull too far ahead and Aston Martin too far behind for anything to change much in the final four races.
“We would have all loved to have been in the fight for the championship,” Hamilton said. “That’s what everyone works towards. We knew at the beginning of the year it was going to be tough, as soon as we hit the ground. And we didn’t expect to also have some of the success we had. Silverstone, everyone worked so hard to get that result, which I’m so incredibly grateful to the team for.
“I know this team so well, and I know the result and the position we’re in this year will only fuel them even more to work harder to have a better car next year.”
Hamilton won’t be the one to benefit from that hard work. By then, he’ll be in Ferrari colors and his new team could be celebrating its first F1 championship since 2008 if it can continue its late charge to deny McLaren the constructors’ crown. With 2025 expected to be a year of performance stability, given the focus teams will place on their new cars arriving in 2026, Hamilton may have timed his move to Maranello just right.
“I’m very interested about my future, of course,” Hamilton said. “And so in that respect, (I’m) keeping an eye, yeah, watching everything that happens.”
While stressing his focus was still on Mercedes, Hamilton admitted he was encouraged by the progress at Ferrari. “If you look at somewhere like maybe China already, the Red Bull was like a second ahead,” Hamilton said. “And it’s been quite incredible to see the McLaren rise, and then the Ferrari in the last few races, to see their progress, and just trying to keep an eye on everyone’s car and what they’re changing, what they’re adding.
“We all watch the onboard laps, we’re all trying to see where we can gain time. There are some cars that just react differently or better or worse in certain areas, and you’re trying to figure out how you can find that either within your balance or get the team to develop a car in that direction.”
That hope of Hamilton adding to his record haul of 105 F1 wins, 84 of which have come with Mercedes since 2013, before the end of the season is fading fast. These last four races are unlikely to offer any perfect goodbye, a la Sainz and Ferrari in Mexico. As the drivers’ championship battle between Verstappen and Norris heats up, Hamilton accepts his position. And he’s excited by the fight, having been in Norris’ shoes as the title rival to Verstappen three years ago, even if he’s resigned to being an observer this time.
“I’m really excited to see what happens over these races,” Hamilton said. “I’m really hoping I can at least have a good seat view to watch it all, as they’ll be ahead.”
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Top photo: SIPA USA
