Lewis Hamilton has revealed that Mercedes engineers ganged up on him during a team paintballing session the day after he told the Brackley-based team that he was leaving for Ferrari. The Brit swapped the Silver Arrows for Fred Vasseur’s squad in February 2024, before pre-season testing. This set up a drawn-out divorce as Mercedes prepared for life without their star driver.
Speaking to TIME Magazine about the separation, Hamilton explained that he was targeted, in good faith, when the squad went paintballing together.
“They lit me up hard,” he said. “It was so painful.”
A member of his own team even hit the seven-time world champion at one point. Despite 2024 proving to be a frustrating year for Hamilton, he still has plenty of love for his old employers. He continued:
“There is no bad blood. Absolutely not. We won so many championships.”
He also believes that they will return to title contention before too long.
“They have all the ingredients to win world championships, and they will win more World Championships,” he added.
“I have no doubt.”
Throughout his time with McLaren and the Silver Arrows, Hamilton has only ever worked with Mercedes power units. Switching to Ferrari for 2025, the 40-year-old is now experiencing a steep learning curve.
With 2025 anticipated to be the most competitive season in F1 for a decade, Hamilton has little time to lose, too. The Brit completed an aggressive private testing scheme during the off-season and has been working from early in the morning until late in the evening at the Bahrain International Circuit during pre-season testing.
The Brit even posted the fastest time of the Thursday morning session, but he isn’t totally satisfied with his adaption thus far. “I still feel that there’s still quite a bit to come,” he confessed on Friday.
“Fortunately, I got to drive the 2023 car. So, I’ve really been able to compare to the 2024 and the 2023 cars and see where they’ve progressed, the problems they had on those two cars and how they’ve improved into this one.
“Obviously, I didn’t get to do the test at the end of the year, so for me, I started relatively late compared to others that have come before me – like Sebastian [Vettel] started here in November [2014], so he had a good two months, whereas for me it’s been this [one] month period that I’ve had.
“So, a lot has been crammed in, in that time. But I personally like to just jump in the deep end and figure it out. That’s what we’re doing, but of course, we’re going through the processes, and I feel like in this period of time, we’ve built a really good foundation.”
