Shovlin: Mercedes want happy ending to Hamilton chapter

The Hamilton to Ferrari news almost broke the internet and shocked the entire F1 world apart from the few who orchestrated the deal and made it happen. But five months down that's 'old news' now. How the Mercedes and their great driver part ways has been the focus ever since.

Mercedes want to make Hamilton's final year in Silver as memorable as possible, so said the team's engineering director Andy Shovlin in the latest F1 Nation podcast: “When Lewis announced he was going to Ferrari, all of us felt like: ‘well, let's make this year one to remember and let's go out with something to celebrate."

“The entire team was hoping that this would be a year that we could get back to winning races and have some results because it would be a real shame if that absolutely incredible chapter of Lewis' career that is at Mercedes, were to finish with three winless seasons on the trot.

“We're happy for him, we're happy for the team. There's nothing that we want more than for that chapter with Lewis to finish with a happy ending," added Shovlin.

Happier it does not come than winning one's home Grand Prix. Which Hamilton did, triumphing at Silverstone for a ninth time and pushing his record F1 victories 10 104. All powered by Mercedes of course.

Conditions and pressure were among the factors that contributed to Hamilton's well-earned victory at the 2024 British GP, his first since Saudi 2021.

Shovlin recalled Silverstone, where Hamilton ended a near 1000-day streak of no wins, his longest ever: “It was nice when that sort of decision-making between the team and the driver is just working perfectly and you're able to call all those big strategy decisions spot on.”

This is a far cry from the two-and-half seasons before this surge in race-winning performance, Mercedes were almost in crisis and Hamilton not always happy. Shovlin recalled the recent hard times: "When we launched our third bad car in a row, we were all wondering: why have we made that mistake and how have we done that again?

“It does have you questioning what you're doing. I think the fact that we haven't had a competitive car made it difficult for Lewis because he is a driver who is just born to win races. It's been a tough few years for him, having had so many difficult results.

“It's not like he's had all bad races because he's got George, who's an incredibly fast driver and a very difficult person to beat, and Lewis has had his fair share of races where he's been ahead of George. It's just that we weren't able to win because we didn't have the car to win," explained Shovlin.

Mercedes head to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Round 13 of the 2024 F1 World Championship, unexpectedly hunting three wins in a row, to add to George Russell's Austrian GP victory, and Hamilton's home triumph.

To date, Hamilton has 344 Grand Prix starts, all with Mercedes power. Winning 21 times for McLaren and claiming his first F1 title (2008) with them. Since joining the Silver Arrows in 2013, Hamilton scored another 83 victories and added six more F1 titles to his name.