Lewis Hamilton did his best to spur Mercedes on following a disappointing qualifying session in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton’s elimination in Q1 in Abu Dhabi set the seven-time F1 World Champion up for a difficult final race with Mercedes, but the team’s technical director James Allison has revealed how Hamilton attempted to perk his team back up after the tough result.

James Allison reveals Lewis Hamilton’s debrief message to Mercedes

Doomed to start the race from close to the back of the grid, Hamilton employed an unusual counter-strategy on Sunday to start on the hard tyre before swapping to the mediums for his second stint.

Hamilton would go on to finish a stunning fourth, catching and passing Mercedes teammate George Russell with a daring round-the-outside overtake on the very last lap.

Analysing the race in Mercedes’ usual post-race debrief, technical director James Allison revealed how Hamilton had refused to be too morose about the prospect of a poor final race with the team he’s raced with for the past 12 years.

“Qualifying was a difficult time for Lewis in this event with his run-in with the bollard,” Allison said of the incident which cost Hamilton dear – the Mercedes man running over a track bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen as the Haas driver stayed out of Hamilton’s way on the final run.

“He was disappointed, we were even more disappointed for him and yet, in the debrief afterwards when we were down in the mouth, he was telling us, ‘Look, put your chins up, we’re going to make the most of tomorrow and remember all the times when we’ve got this right together.’

“I think that is what it feels like. We have had some difficult seasons recently but over the span of this relationship no other driver-team partnership has come close to matching what we have done together and it has just been a fantastic run for all of us and we could not wish him more well than we did on that last day together.”

Attempting to summarise the feelings of Mercedes as the Brackley-based squad bids adieu to the driver with which it has won six Drivers’ Championships over the past decade, Allison said such a task would be “very hard”.

“We would of course love this whole season, let alone the last race, to be more of a fairy tale ending to a partnership that has set all the benchmarks in Formula 1,” he said.

“It would have been fitting if we could have finished on the podium at the very least or ideally on the top step, but that was not to be.

“That said, I think it could not have been more well handled by Lewis and by the team and I think that owes a massive amount to the respect that there is between Lewis and the team and the huge amount of appreciation for everything we have achieved together.”

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Lewis Hamilton: Love conquers all

Speaking after his final chequered flag with Mercedes, Hamilton admitted there has been “ups and downs” in his last year with Brackley as not everyone was enamoured with the idea of his move to Ferrari for F1 2025.

“There’s been certain feelings because I’ve chosen to go a certain way, and it’s not been easy for people to accept and to get over. But then, bit by bit through the year, what’s come through is that there’s real love at the end of the day,” he said.

“There’s board members from Mercedes who have stood by and supported me all these years who were upset at the beginning, but then were like today, ‘you will always be a part of the family’ – so it just shows that love conquers all, and I think there is a lot of love between us.

“I mean, this weekend, on Thursday with the team, surprised me upstairs, and that was super emotional up there.

“I ain’t got no more tears, really, everything came out then.”