Lewis Hamilton ran with the number one on his Mercedes during FP1 on the first day of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, he did it for the record but much prefers his special number 44 on the car, which was back on the silver livery in time for FP2.
After running number one on the nose of the Mercedes, Hamilton admitted to reporters, “I personally don’t like it, I don’t like it at all. It was just for one session, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
“The reason I did it is because I’ve been here for six years and since we’ve been world champions we’ve never had the number one on the car and I thought it would just be cool.”
“I remember when McLaren had number one when Jenson [Button] won the world title and he moved [from Brawn] and brought it with him. It’s strange that McLaren could then have number one – the next team can, wherever you go.”
“I remember the engineers, or the mechanics, asking me at one stage would I ever do it. I thought it would be cool to just have it on the car for one session so at least they will have a picture somewhere that they can be really proud of that we were number one.
“44 is my special number, and in actual fact everyone in the team or on my car particularly were saying to me that when they are travelling they’ll see a bus number 44 and then they will see a flight or a seat number 44.”
“It’s becoming part of their lives, which is great because that’s exactly how it is with me,” added the five times Formula 1 World Champion.