Lewis Hamilton faces an emotional end to 'amazing' Mercedes journey before joining Ferrari in F1

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Lewis Hamilton is looking back on an “amazing journey” and the most successful partnership in Formula 1 history as he prepares to bid farewell to Mercedes this week and join Ferrari.

The move offers a new start for the 39-year-old Hamilton, who's had a difficult end to his last Mercedes season. Ferrari's first task next year might be to get him back on form.

“I don't think we're going to end up on a high,” Hamilton said Sunday after finishing 12th in Qatar in another tough race which saw him get penalties, a puncture, and even ask Mercedes for permission to retire the car. Two days earlier, he said he was “definitely not fast any more” after struggling again in qualifying.

Hamilton's last race for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday will bring down the curtain on a 12-year stay with the team. He won six of his seven world titles with Mercedes, the most by any F1 driver with a single team.

As an all-time great and the sport's only Black driver, Hamilton's influence extends far beyond the F1 grid.

Hamilton shook up F1 with the shock announcement in February that he would join Ferrari in 2025 — a decision he even kept secret from his parents — and the prospect of leaving Mercedes has overshadowed this season.

“I’ve had all year to think about it, so there’s been those highs and lows through the year. I can’t predict how I’m going to feel next Sunday after the race, or the days to follow, or at Christmas time,” Hamilton said last week.

Hamilton said he would miss the “family” atmosphere at Mercedes and will leave with warm memories, including of Niki Lauda, the former F1 champion who played a key role in bringing him to the team and who died in 2019.

“There’s many, many great moments. Moments with Niki, amazing conversations, arguments,” Hamilton said. “It’s been an amazing journey together, one that I’ve genuinely loved.”

The last time Hamilton switched teams, he found it hard to stay away from his old employer. Hamilton recalled the incident in 2013 when he mistakenly drove into McLaren’s pit at the Malaysian Grand Prix, in his second race after leaving for Mercedes.

“I remember when I joined this team it was strange driving past my old team in the pit lane, to the point that I stopped at theirs at one point,” he said.

After an emotional victory at his home British Grand Prix in July ended a 945-day wait for a win, Hamilton took another win at the Belgian Grand Prix when his teammate George Russell finished first but was disqualified. Since then, though, Hamilton has placed behind Russell in 10 of 12 races, including sprints.

Qualifying has been Hamilton's biggest problem, forcing him to try to make up places on race day.

“When you’re always back where I am (on the grid), it makes it very hard, almost impossible, to be competing for wins," he said last week.

Hamilton is missing one potential chance to drive the Ferrari this year in the testing session after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He said it’s not possible under his contract with Mercedes but he didn’t want to start his Ferrari career that way, anyway.

It's likely Hamilton will get take the wheel behind closed doors at Ferrari's famed Fiorano test track early next year.

“I know (Ferrari team principal) Fred (Vasseur) wanted it to happen. For me, I was in two minds. Driving the red car for the first time in Abu Dhabi does not excite me. In a perfect world you’d get to drive and not be seen and do the first rollout next year,” he said. “Am I missing out on something? For sure.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain leaves the pit during sprint qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, ahead of the Qatar Formula One Grand Prix, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, Pool)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain gets ready for practice at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, ahead of the Qatar Formula One Grand Prix, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain walks through paddock as he arrives at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain leaves the pit during practice at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, ahead of the Qatar Formula One Grand Prix, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain prepares prior to the start of the sprint race at the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix, at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain prepares prior to the start of the sprint race at the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix, at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Pool/ Altaf Qadri)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain prepares prior to the start of the sprint race at the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix, at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Pool/ Altaf Qadri)

HONG KONG (AP) — Global stocks were mixed Wednesday after overnight political drama in South Korea added to regional uncertainties, though the Kospi in Seoul fell less than 2%.

France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3% in early trading to 7,278.18, as the minority government was facing a no-confidence vote Wednesday in parliament following a divisive budget debate. There appeared to be a strong chance the vote might topple Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s Cabinet.

Germany’s DAX added 0.4% to 20,100.80, while Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.2% to 8,343.17.

The future contract for the S&P 500 edged 0.2% higher and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. Yoon accused pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. The martial law declaration was revoked about six hours later.

On Wednesday, South Korea’s main opposition party called for President Yoon to resign immediately or face impeachment.

Yoon's move caused the won to plummet to a two-year low against the U.S. dollar, with losses of up to 2%, the sharpest one-day drop since the market’s seismic reaction to Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. The won recovered some of those losses on Wednesday. The dollar was trading at 1,412.87 won, down from Tuesday's peak at 1,443.40.

South Korea’s Kospi closed 1.4% lower to 2,464.00. Shares of Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company, fell 0.9%. Meanwhile, the country’s financial regulator said they were prepared to deploy 10 trillion won ($7.07 billion) into a stock market stabilization fund at any time, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Elsewhere in the region, in a further step toward an outright trade war, China announced Tuesday it was banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony, and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. Beijing took the measure after the U.S. expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software, and high-bandwidth memory chips.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended little changed at 19,742.46, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.4% to 3,364.65.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.1% to 39,276.39. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4% to 8,462.60.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year.

The S&P 500 edged up less than 0.1% to 6,049.88, setting an all-time high for the 55th time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% to 44,705.53, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to 19,480.91, hitting its own record set a day earlier.

Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday.

Yields have seesawed since Election Day on worries that Trump’s preferences for lower tax rates and bigger tariffs could spur higher inflation. But traders are still confident the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group.

Lower rates can give the economy a lift but also tend to fuel inflation.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 14 cents to $70.08 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 20 cents to $73.82 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 150.65 Japanese yen from 149.59 yen. The euro cost $1.0496, down from $1.0510.

Holiday decorations are shown in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

FILE - Pedestrians cross Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A person rides a bicycle in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange building Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)