Lewis Hamilton has revealed how he took satisfaction from his success in F1 with Mercedes after being warned that his “career was over” after leaving McLaren.
Hamilton won the first of his joint-record seven World Championships with McLaren in 2008, yet decided to leave four years later for a Mercedes team with just one race victory in three seasons.
The move came as a major shock, with a number of observers claiming Hamilton was gambling with his career by joining such an unproven team.
Hamilton’s decision proved inspired when Mercedes emerged as F1’s dominant force in 2014, with the British driver winning six titles in seven years to equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven Championships in 2020.
Hamilton then became the first driver in history to surpass 100 race wins and pole positions the following year, when he was dethroned by Max Verstappen at the highly controversial season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Having suffered two winless seasons across 2022/23, Hamilton – who announced in February that he would end his long association with Mercedes to join Ferrari next year – has returned to the top step of the podium in F1 2024 by winning at Silverstone and Spa.
Appearing on the Performance People podcast, Hamilton described his decision to join Mercedes as the most pivotal moment of his F1 career.
And he revealed how opinions on his call to leave McLaren, who have won just four races since Hamilton’s departure, soon changed when he began to have success with Mercedes.
Asked to pinpoint the defining moment of his career, he said: “It will probably have been when I decided to join Mercedes.
“I was in Thailand at the time, in between races after Singapore, and that’s when I made the decision.
“And I was like: ‘I want to take the leap of faith and I’m going to go with it, regardless of what people say.’
“Pretty much everyone told me to stay, but I went with my gut and my intuition and it was the best thing for me.
“I was with a championship-winning team. I was with McLaren, which had such a great history.
“Obviously Mercedes used to own half of McLaren, and so it was partly their team, but then they broke away and bought their own team and as they were trying to ramp up, they weren’t having a lot of success.
“I think they were the fifth or sixth-best team at the time, so they were often finishing out of the top 10, struggling to get into the top 10.
“As a World Champion, people were like: ‘This is the worst decision you can make, this not a great team and your career is over.’
“All the pundits, all the media outlets, all the fans, everyone was like: ‘Career’s over.’
“And then it went well and everyone’s like: ‘Oh, it’s the best decision ever made.’”
Hamilton’s decision to leave McLaren came after he had graduated from the team’s driver academy, with the Stevenage-born racer establishing a close relationship with long-serving team boss Ron Dennis.
The 39-year-old has revealed that he did not feel he was “being challenged enough” at McLaren, describing it as “the greatest feeling” when he helped build Mercedes into a winning force,
Asked what made him ignore the advice to remain with McLaren, he explained: “I think it was just really that I wanted a challenge at the time and I love taking risks. I always have.
“And also I never liked doing the same thing everyone expects of me, so that’s why I never did well at school.
“I meditated on it, I prayed on it, trying to think of what I wanted to do and I just loved the challenge.
“I thought that, where I was, I didn’t feel like I was being challenged enough.
“And going into a really uncomfortable position, getting out of your comfort zone, is what I love to do, because it’s nerve-wracking, but I love that feeling. That’s the feeling you get when you get in a Formula 1 car.
“But moving into a new team, people I didn’t know, having to get integrated, all the changes you need to make, and then the growth process of building it and evolving it and growing towards a common goal.
“Getting there is the greatest feeling when you do eventually do that.”
Hamilton’s latest comments come after he revealed that he “didn’t enjoy” his first title-winning season with Mercedes in 2014 and only really started to revel in the team’s success when they proved they were “here to stay” the following year.
He said: “I was getting to qualify on pole, I was up at the front, we were fighting for this championship and I couldn’t believe that the decision I made was paying off: ‘Wow, it’s really, really happening. This is the right thing for me.’ I was riding this beautiful wave.
“When I look back, I think: was it the most competitive season?
“I was competing with my team-mate. He was tough to beat, but in general you would always prefer that you’re competing with several teams. That’s what the sport should be doing.
“More often than not, that’s not the case, but I’m still grateful for it obviously.
“I think it was until 2015 that I was really, really able to properly enjoy it.
“The first one I didn’t enjoy because it was just – I don’t know – it just wasn’t a great time for me.
“The second [title in 2014] was just like: ‘I made the right decision and I proved everyone wrong. Great, so I can sleep.’
“But then the next one felt like: ‘OK, we’re here to stay, this is really [going to mean] something’ – because [three titles is] also what Ayrton [Senna] won.”
