Hamilton “massively underestimated” how hard final Mercedes season would be

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he underestimated simply how troublesome his last season with Mercedes can be from an emotional perspective.

The seven-time world champion revealed initially of the yr that he can be leaving the German producer for Ferrari, ending what may have been a 12-year partnership.

Whereas it was hoped getting the information out early would permit Hamilton and Mercedes to place apart any future hypothesis and give attention to delivering on monitor, the marketing campaign has been far more difficult than each of them anticipated.

And Hamilton has confessed forward of his last race weekend that from the second of what he mentioned was an “awkward” dialog with crew boss Toto Wolff to inform him he was leaving, issues have proved to be tense.

“I feel finally I anticipated it might be troublesome, however massively underestimated how troublesome it might be,” he mentioned.

“It was straining on the connection very early on. It took time for individuals to get previous it.

“After which only for my very own self, it has been a really emotional yr for me. I feel I’ve not been at my finest in dealing with and coping with these feelings.”

Hamilton thinks that the size of the difficulties he confronted in coping with issues this yr meant at occasions that individuals noticed the worst of him.

“I feel this yr, and so lots of you will have been right here my entire profession, so a few of you, I feel, you have all seen the worst of me and seen the most effective of me,” he mentioned.

“I am not going to apologise for both as a result of I am solely human and I do not at all times get it proper. I positively would say this yr’s been one of many worst by way of dealing with that from my aspect, which I am going to work on making an attempt to be higher at.

“However I hope the great and the highs far outweigh the negatives and the way I’ve dealt with it or behaved.”

Whereas current outcomes haven’t been what he nor Mercedes wished, Hamilton says he’ll depart the crew on Sunday solely with recollections of the highs.

“I simply bear in mind the great occasions,” he added. “I’ve constructed some unimaginable relationships.

“We have gone by [so much]. In the event you think about, whenever you’re going by a season along with so many individuals, you recognize, not solely on these race weekends the place you are driving the highs and lows collectively, however of their private lives, by marriages, by divorces, by lack of relations, by most cancers, by all types.

“You are going by these journeys with these individuals. So it is a actually lovely journey you go on collectively. And being that it was so lengthy, the feelings run so deep.”

Talking about what the abiding reminiscence of his 246 races along with Mercedes can be, Hamilton singled out their win on the 2014 Bahrain GP.

“I feel it is the grins, once we’ve had the success,” he mentioned. “I feel it is these moments.

“I bear in mind one explicit engineer [Aldo Costa] at our win in Australia [actually Bahrain] in 2014. I simply bear in mind him being in tears once we had been on the rostrum. It is these moments that I take with me. It is the feelings that we had in Silverstone this yr. It is all the great bits.

“Naturally, you principally bear in mind the great bits. I am simply extremely proud, but additionally simply so grateful to each single particular person, each which can be right here on the monitor, but additionally again on the manufacturing facility which have simply labored tirelessly and, you recognize, been supporting me for all these years from day one.”