Hamilton is into his final months as a Mercedes F1 driver, with the seven-time F1 World Champion taking on a new challenge with Ferrari in 2025, bringing to an end the most successful driver/team partnership in the sport’s history.
Damon Hill: Mercedes is an honourable team
Appearing on the F1 Nation podcast ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix and the resumption of action for the second half of the 2024 championship, Hill said it’s very likely that the process of icing Lewis Hamilton out of meetings and discussions regarding the development direction of next year’s W16 will have begun.
It’ll be an unusual dynamic for Hamilton to adjust to, given how embedded he’s been within the squad since joining the Brackley-based team at the end of 2012, but Hill said he doubts Hamilton will be made to feel uncomfortable or will be treated in any way unfairly in his final months.
“I think it’s got to, hasn’t it?” he replied when asked if the process is likely to make his life harder in his final 10 races.
“I mean, he’s got to be excluded from conversations to do with whatever’s coming for next year.
They don’t want to show many insights that he might take to Ferrari, particularly. So it may be he’s deprived of a little bit more information than he’s liked in the past.
“But they are an honourable team, Mercedes, and I think Toto [Wolff] is an honourable person.
“I think that he’ll always be treated fairly within a team, but there’s only so much you can give away, isn’t there, when you’ve got a guy leaving.”
