Lewis Hamilton: Free Pass?

The Lewis Hamilton move to Ferrari was announced February 1, 2024, and it shocked me. I haven’t been that stunned for a move in sports since Brett Favre swapped the white and green of the New York Jets for the purple and gold of my hometown Minnesota Vikings.

By February 2, I was remarking to loved ones that I wondered how much his focus would slip with a full year between the announcement and his move to Maranello.

It has never left my mind.

Lewis has been largely subpar this season. The car hasn’t been great but he has consistently struggled to match Russell’s pace and their respective points totals don’t make for nice viewing for Lewis or his fans.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, he sticks it on the front row in the rain in China for the Sprint race and we suddenly see a different side of him: the Lewis that was battling for P2 in the WDC until late in the 2023 season, itself a paler version of 2021 Lewis and 2020 Lewis and 2019 Lewis and…

It’s completely fair to question exactly how motivated he is to do much of anything with a team he’s leaving. The conversation centered around when Mercedes would stop sharing information with Lewis but there hasn’t been enough discussion about when Lewis is going to stop sharing the best of himself with Mercedes. Maybe it’s already happened.

I don’t think it’s a conscious decision. I think if Lewis could delight his team, he would. I just don’t expect him to wring himself dry trying to do it.

Critics have already lined up to take him to task. The same people who derisively say he’s phoning it in and should be ashamed are surely also the ones who mentally check themselves out of work by Thursday afternoon.

Don’t count me among them. I don’t think he’s going to give Mercedes absolutely everything and I’m here to say this: That’s okay. 

If Lewis Hamilton’s storied career is a book, it is a mighty tome with the Silver Arrows adorning the cover. Both he and his current team have earned a more casual epilogue.