Hamilton concedes own fault in 'awkward' Mercedes exit

Lewis Hamilton has conceded he "underestimated" how difficult his "awkward" Mercedes exit was going to be. 

In February, before pre-season testing, it was announced that he would depart the Brackley team after 12 seasons and six world titles to join Ferrari for 2025. 

It is the first time Hamilton is moving teams since the 2012-13 off-season when he traded McLaren for Mercedes as the seven-time champion detailed how he had "underestimated" the difficulty of a long goodbye lasting the entire season.

"I mean, the first meeting with Toto at the beginning of the year was awkward, of course," Hamilton told media including RacingNews365.

"So it was awkward from the get-go, to the day after when I took some of the team paintballing, and they had just found out, I got lots of shots from people, loads of bruises, people went in on me that day!

"I think ultimately I anticipated it would be difficult, but massively underestimated how difficult it would be, and it was straining on the relationship very early on, took time for people to get past it. 

"And then just for my own self, it's been a very emotional year for me, I've not been at my best in handling and dealing with those emotions.

"So many of you have been here my whole career, so some of you, I think, you've all seen the worst of me and seen the best of me and I'm not going to apologise for either because I'm only human and I don't always get it right.

"I would definitely would say this year's been one of the worst in terms of handling that from my side, which I'll work on trying to be better at."

Hamilton also detailed the bonds he had built during his long stay at the team and the 'deep emotions' he felt.

"I hope the good and the highs far outweigh the negatives and how I've handled it or behaved," he added.

"And as I said, I just remember the good times, you know. I've built some incredible relationships. 

"If you imagine, when you're going through a season together with so many people, you know, not only on those race weekends where you're riding the highs and lows together but in their personal lives, through marriages, through divorces, through loss of family members, through cancer, through all sorts.

"You're going through these journeys with these people, so it's a really beautiful journey you go on together. And being that it was so long, the emotions run so deep."