Months after moving to Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton shares glowing admiration for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton had a successful partnership with Mercedes, winning six Drivers' titles and 84 race wins, before embarking on his new journey with Ferrari. Reflecting on his departure from the German team, the 40-year-old shared how he still has love for his previous squad, despite his farewell from the team.

The Briton had joined Mercedes in 2013, which saw the birth of a historic driver-team alliance. While this partnership rewrote F1 history, Mercedes became a former version of itself with the onset of the ground effect regulations in 2022.

The team secured a sole victory in 2022, before not being able to take home a single winners' trophy in 2023. This gave Hamilton the fuel required to ignite the path away from Mercedes, and Ferrari conveniently took over the seven-time champion from the Brackley-based squad on a long-term contract.

Despite moving to Maranello over the winter break, the love is still there for Hamilton, as the Briton said on the fan stage after the British GP:

"It's mind blowing for me to see you guys with the red caps. When I made the decision... I still love my old team. I miss them. I miss working with the crew all the time. Some of these races I go by the engineers room and go by the garage and see Bono and see all the mechanics. It's so much love still there.

"But it was such a big leap of faith to join a new team and it's been so tough this year."

Lewis Hamilton secured his third fourth-place finish of the 2025 season as his podium drought continues into the second half of the year.

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Lewis Hamilton changes his driving style to adapt to the Ferrari SF-25

Lewis Hamilton at the qualifying for the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton started his Ferrari chapter with high hopes of helping the Italian giant claim the world championship, which the team had barely missed out on last year. However, the scale had been tipped against the Prancing Horse as the SF-25 is often not able to claim a podium finish during race weekends.

Moreover, Charles Leclerc has remained the lead point scorer for the team, but this trend changed at the British GP. Talking about how this change was brought into the team, Ferrari deputy team principal, Jerome D'Ambrosio, shared that Hamilton had switched to an oversteer setup, closer to what Leclerc uses, as he said, via Racing News 365:

"To extract the maximum from the car, there is a certain need in terms of balance, and Charles has had a car with a bit more oversteery for a few races, and that has worked well for him.

"Lewis did in fact move in that direction recently, and he is also making it work."

Meanwhile, Hamilton has amassed 103 points after 12 rounds of racing in the 2025 season.