Ted Kravitz explains why Lewis Hamilton once left Ferrari staff ‘in tears’ at the Mexican Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton will race at the Mexico City Grand Prix in Ferrari colours for the first time this weekend. But it was at this race eight years ago that he left their staff in tears.

Hamilton has won as many world championships (two) as he has races as the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It was the scene of his coronation in both 2017 and 2018.

Hamilton went up against Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel in those campaigns. The narrative was similar on both occasions – Vettel looked a genuine threat to the Mercedes dynasty in the first half of the season, then fell away after the summer break.

In 2017, Hamilton and Vettel collided on the first lap, puncturing a tyre on the Silver Arrow and breaking the front wing on the Ferrari. The German recovered to fourth but he needed a top-two finish to extend the title race, so Hamilton’s P9 was enough to trigger the celebrations.

Ferrari’s ‘inevitable’ defeat to Lewis Hamilton led to Mexican Grand Prix ‘tears’

Writing in his book, F1 Insider: Notes from the Pit Lane, Ted Kravitz recalled the conclusion to the 2017 title battle. Vettel was just three points behind Hamilton after finishing third at the Italian GP.

However, an infamous tangle with teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the start of the race in Singapore led to a DNF, and Vettel also retired at Suzuka after losing power. Hamilton won both of those races to take command of the title race.

• READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton is now suffering from the same ‘internal’ problem as Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari

But even though Ferrari knew ‘defeat was inevitable’ by the time they arrived in Mexico, some team members were crying when the result became official.

“With at least 50 points dropped over three races, defeat was inevitable, but that didn’t make it any easier to take,” Kravitz writes. “Ferrari people were in tears when Hamilton wrapped up the world title in Mexico.”

Sebastian Vettel was ‘distraught’ after Lewis Hamilton won the title

In 2018, Hamilton carried a 70-point lead over Vettel into the Mexico round. He only needed a top-seven finish, so fourth was more than enough, even with Vettel second.

According to former Ferrari strategist Ruth Buscombe, Vettel believed until the end that he could mount a remarkable comeback. That meant he was ‘distraught’ after the race.

Hamilton has called Vettel the best world champion he knows, and the four-time champion showed commendable sportsmanship by shaking the hands of the Mercedes crew afterwards.

Buscombe said: “We always had this mantra at Scuderia Ferrari that you can never count someone out until they’re mathematically out, even when it looks slightly silly from the outside.

“Our best example of this is 2018, with Sebastian Vettel vs Lewis Hamilton where, from the outside, you say Lewis is going to win another world championship, easy.

“Sebastian was so distraught after the Mexican Grand Prix, because that was the race where it was mathematically no longer possible for him to win the world championship.

“He went into the Mercedes garage, he shook everybody’s hand, accepting defeat. If you’d asked him until that moment, until that morning of the race, he still believed there was a chance.”