“Louis, it’s Hammer time”. A radio message that was feared by opponents and their fans, has now been missed on the grid. Lewis Hamilton drove the final race at the Marina Circuit on Sunday for Mercedes, with whom he has won six world titles.
After the race, the British driver had an emotional radio exchange with his race engineer Peter Bonnington, known as Bono on team radio, and team principal Toto Wolff. Both had several touching messages for Hamilton as he drove around the Yas Marina circuit after crossing the finish line on a cooldown lap before treating fans to a donut spectacle.
“I love you. I really do.”
Lewis signed his time with Mercedes in style#F1 #AbudhaBGP pic.twitter.com/VhGfFcUASd
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 8, 2024
“Lewis, that was a world champion’s drive,” said Toto Wolff, all praise for the driver as Hamilton thanked the team on the radio for all the hard work they have done for him over the past 11 years. Bono followed to congratulate Louis on his successful tenure at Mercedes. “Good boy. Stellar job today Bud. But yeah, it’s been fun all the way…” to which the seven-time world champion replied “The pleasure has been mine. Yeah Bono. You know, we dreamed it alone, but together we Believed and, as a team, we achieved things that just… Thank you for all the courage, determination, passion and supporting me. What started as a leap of faith, turned into a journey into the history books – everything we did We did it together and I’m very grateful to everyone here and at the factory, from the bottom of my heart, the best.” and “I love you all”.
The team principal had one last message when the radio went silent, a message that touched the hearts of all Mercedes fans on social media. “We love you too and you’re always going to be a part of that family. And if we can’t win, you have to win.