The decision by Lewis Hamilton to wear red ahead of his final Formula 1 race with Mercedes was “inappropriate”, according to his former team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Arriving at the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of the 2024 season’s curtain-closer, Hamilton was dressed head-to-toe in red clothing, a possible nod to his switch to Ferrari, which became official on January 1st.
Hamilton has increasingly shown off his particular fashion styles over recent years, making it an extracurricular activity, but on this occasion, Rosberg feels that he missed the mark in a way that was perhaps showing a level of disrespect towards the team he spent 12 seasons with.
“I find this decision very strange and inappropriate. It’s a shame,” he said.
“It’s his day, so it’s OK. They [Hamilton and Mercedes] celebrate and appreciate it, they still have a good relationship. But it’s a small point that I think is a shame.”
Lewis Hamilton will be ‘very worried’ if qualifying woes continue
Speaking on Sky F1’s podcast, Rosberg also opined that Hamilton, with whom he was team-mates for four seasons amid a bitter rivalry, will be concerned about continuing his poor qualifying form as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton struggled in this area in 2024, which affected many of his race results, necessitating him to pull out all the stops to overcome his Saturday problems and finish well on Sunday.
In 2024, Hamilton out-qualified team-mate George Russell a mere five times in 24 races, and in Qatar, where he qualified five places beneath Russell with a four-tenths-of-a-second deficit, he told media: “I’m definitely not fast anymore.”
“He is at a place where he’s saying to himself, ‘I’m not fast anymore’, and that’s really singled out to qualifying,” said Rosberg.
“The problem with our sport is that if you don’t qualify high up, you really struggle, even though he still seems to be at his very, very best in race pace – we’ve seen over and over again his racing pace is just still insanely strong.
“But when you qualify poorly all the time almost, and he says himself he’s just not quick enough in qualifying, then that’s something that was weighing on the shoulders so much during the end of the year, because you know you when you get beaten from your team-mate who’s younger, and let’s remember, the team-mate is not a World Champion, the team-mate is just a four-time race winner [three, sic.].
“And when you get beaten all the time, and in the case of Lewis, who’s statistically the GOAT [greatest of all time, ed.], then that’s really tough, and especially going forward.
“Now, he has two years at Ferrari, and he will 100% be very, very worried. ‘What if this form of mine continues, like, was it just the car at Mercedes, or was it something else? And what if this form of mine continues to Ferrari?’
“If it does, it would really be quite a painful adventure, I would say, because that’s not what Ferrari hired him for.
“Ferrari hired him to be on a level with Leclerc and fight for World Championships. So I think he will be very worried about that, and we can only hope that he finds back to his good old self with a reset at Ferrari and is, once again, the brilliant driver we know.”
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