Kimi Antonelli received handwritten note from Lewis Hamilton before Miami GP achievement

Daily Mirror

05-05-2025

Lewis Hamilton made a poignant gesture to his Mercedes replacement Kimi Antonelli after contending with the emotions of leaving the Silver Arrows after 11 years
Lewis Hamilton left a "special" welcome message for Kimi Antonelli amidst the swirl of emotions surrounding his departure from Mercedes after an 11-year stint. The British racing icon dropped a bombshell last season when he announced his move to join Charles Leclerc at Ferrari for the 2025 Formula One season.
Hamilton's revelation sent shockwaves through the sports world, yet it also allowed the seven-time world champion to experience a sort of farewell tour during the season, knowing it would be his last as a Mercedes driver. The depth of his emotion was particularly evident after the Italian Grand Prix, which concluded the European leg of the 2024 season.
‌
Stephen Lord, Mercedes' race team co-ordinator and one of Hamilton's closest colleagues, shared insights into his post-race behaviour in a special episode of Beyond The Grid, highlighting the moment of realisation about his impending exit that led him to embrace a team member.
‌
With Mercedes having a race base in Europe where drivers have personal rooms kitted out for them, the thought of seeing his room for the last time overwhelmed the Brit with emotion. "Lewis had finished engineering," recounted Lord.
"I think the engineers had left so Lewis was upstairs in the room on his own. I popped up, grabbed a couple of bits, came back down the stairs, and Lewis came down the stairs ready to leave and head home.
"He got to the bottom of the stairs and he stopped, then he turned around and went back upstairs. I thought, 'He's forgotten something,' didn't think much of it. He came back down about 10 minutes later and he grabbed a guy that works for the team, Carlos, who's our head of race team logistics.
"And you could see that Lewis 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."
After making his departure, Lord discovered Hamilton's touching gesture of leaving a handwritten note for Antonelli – who became the youngest driver ever to secure an F1 pole position for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix, marking a record-breaking weekend for the 18-year-old.
‌
"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 thought, 'Wow, what a nice thing to do.' And actually, we've had glass cut and it's now covered in the room, so it will be there forever more. I thought I'd just go into the bathroom and make sure that everything's been packed away and we've got all we need.
‌
"I walked into the bathroom and next to the 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 was pretty special."
While Hamilton has found it tough going at Ferrari this season, amassing just 41 points so far, the young starlet has been turning heads alongside George Russell in his first F1 season.
Currently sitting sixth in the World Drivers' Championship, the Italian is seven points clear of his predecessor and notched up sixth place in the Miami GP, as well as seventh in the sprint race after earning pole position for it. He's outperformed Hamilton in five out of the six F1 races this year, with their next showdown set for Imola later in the month.