Lewis Hamilton confesses ‘surreal emotions’ as Mercedes successor confirmed for F1 2025

Lewis Hamilton has confessed to feeling emotional at seeing his Mercedes seat officially filled as a new era begins at Brackley.

Hamilton’s tenure at Mercedes will come to an end at the conclusion of 2024, with the seven-time F1 World Champion departing to join Ferrari next season, and his seat was officially filled by his team over the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Lewis Hamilton: It was very, very surreal

On Saturday morning, after more than six months without the seat being filled, Mercedes confirmed the signing of junior driver Kimi Antonelli to take Hamilton’s cockpit over.

Shortly after, the new team line-up of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli joined Toto Wolff for jubilant media sessions with print media and television, while the long-time talisman of the team quietly stayed out of view.

Mercedes also confirmed to PlanetF1.com that Hamilton’s race engineer Pete Bonnington will take over engineering Antonelli’s car from next year, alongside his recent promotion to head of race engineering.

With the end of his time at Mercedes now approaching, marking the conclusion of the most successful driver/team in F1’s history, Hamilton didn’t try to hide his despondancy as he spoke to media after qualifying at Monza.

Having qualified sixth, a result Hamilton wasn’t thrilled with in the first place, the British driver spoke of his emotions at seeing the team formalise its plans without him in response to a question from PlanetF1.com.

“I’ve known for ages, so…” he smiled wanly.

“I knew it would be announced this morning. I definitely woke up and it was very, very, very surreal to just have, at least officially confirmed, my seat is going that I held onto for so long.

“So it was quite emotional this morning, but I’m really, really happy for Kimi and for this team – I know Kimi is gonna do a great job.”

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Asked whether the emotions are increasing as he counts down into single digits race weekends left with Mercedes, Hamilton said he expects it to only become more prevalent.

“It’s been there all year. Every single race you turn up,” he said.

“I love my team so much. We have been through a hell of a lot together so it will be emotional every single race,.

“Because every race we do is the last time at that particular place. Every race we get closer and closer to the last time I’ll be in that Mercedes. It’s going to be tough, but my focus is just to do my best job for the team and to finish on a high.

“I’ve got to find myself in qualifying somehow. My race pace is great, but I have to figure out how to get back my old self.”

Hamilton confirmed he hadn’t seen any of the pictures or videos of the press sessions celebrating Antonelli’s confirmation, and acknowledged the comments made by Antonelli in which the 17-year-old Italian made it clear that he is not replacing Hamilton, but simply the next driver at Mercedes.

“He’s a great kid,” Hamilton said.

“He’s got a great family around him, and a good head on his shoulders. He’s very talented, he’ll do great. I’m very excited for him.”

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