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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will go down as perhaps the greatest partnership in Formula 1 history, but it certainly did not start smoothly.
The Brit’s decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes was widely criticised, as the latter were not a team that were fighting for podiums, let alone championships. Martin Brundle called out Mercedes for signing Hamilton to replace Michael Schumacher.
Of course, no one would have known just how incredible the partnership would turn out to be, but it was not a good relationship to begin with. Hamilton took his time to get used to the team.
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Lewis Hamilton did not make ‘the best impression’ when he first joined Mercedes
Journalist Edd Straw noted on The Race F1 Podcast how Hamilton struggled to understand how things worked at Mercedes and how to interact with his team.
In many ways, it is a similar situation to what he was facing at Ferrari last year, as he struggled to adapt to the team’s methods. Now, in 2026, Fred Vasseur is listening to Hamilton and he is much more suited to the car, sitting second in the standings.
It was the same story at Mercedes, as Straw recalled how his driver moves have been scrutinised over the years: “It’s also a good element to feed into the whole Hamilton legacy element
“Because I think this has been overstated, but people who want to kind of run down what he’s done, ‘Oh he came into a McLaren that was very good and he went to a Mercedes that had already been built up and gone through the difficult times and won, so what’s he doing in terms of team building?’
“And it’s fair to say that, for example, when he moved to Mercedes, he didn’t make the best impression on everyone initially. It took him a little bit of time to understand how to interact in the best way with the whole team, which he learned really, really well, and then he was hugely effective.”
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Hamilton was certainly effective when he found his feet at Mercedes, as he went on to win six championships and become the most decorated driver in the sport’s history.
Hamilton’s rivalry with Nico Rosberg perhaps cast a dark shadow over the team as it divided the two garages. But after the German’s departure, the seven-time champion was in a league of his own, winning four consecutive titles between 2017 and 2020.
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