Mercedes shares Lewis Hamilton's hand-written message for Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes has revealed how Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, wrote a heartfelt handwritten message for Kimi Antonelli in the rookie's future driver's room during his "emotional" farewell ahead of his departure from the company. In order to join rivals Ferrari for the upcoming season, seven-time world champion Hamilton is leaving Mercedes after twelve seasons. The 39-year-old British driver made a spectacular recovery in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, moving up from 16th on the grid to fourth in his final race with Mercedes.

Following the announcement in February that he would be joining Ferrari for 2025, Hamilton had to confront the challenge of playing his final season with the Silver Arrows, knowing that some of their time together would be their last. In a special episode of Beyond the Grid, Race Team Coordinator Stephen Lord, one of Hamilton's closest colleagues, described how the Briton's realisation that he would not be spending time in his room in the squad's European motorhome again following the Italian Grand Prix caused a lot of emotions.

“And you could see that Lewis Hamilton was really quite emotional, and he grabbed Carlos and said, ‘It's only just occurred to me; I'm never going to see that room ever again. I'm really emotional. I can't leave. I feel kind of sad to walk away from that room because I've been in that room for so many years and I'm never going to see it again.’ He was really quite touched that he was leaving it behind.”

Lewis' hand-written note for Kimi Antonelli 😭

Several guests from Mercedes join a special Beyond The Grid podcast in Abu Dhabi - click to listen to the full version now! 🎧#F1#AbuDhabiGP

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Lewis Hamilton will start his next chapter with Ferrari in 2025

"I walked into the room, and on the wall there's quite a long handwritten note," he continued. "It was a note to Kimi and it was basically welcoming him to his new room, and it was wishing him the best of luck, saying some really nice things about the team and how,if you care for them, they'll care for you because they're a great team'. " I walked into the bathroom and next to toilet, above the toilet roll holder, was 'Lewis was here' with a big smiley face and I thought, 'okay, I like that.' But the note to Kimi Antonelli was pretty special."

Lewis Hamilton will start his next chapter with Ferrari in 2025 after finishing his final race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, while 18-year-old Antonelli moves up from Formula 2 to team up with George Russell at the Silver Arrows.