Why Hamilton won't get his fairytale Mercedes F1 exit

In an ideal world, the most successful F1 driver of all time would end his time at the team with which he has enjoyed unparalleled success by going out in his final grand prix and winning another world championship - or at the very least, the race itself. 

But for Lewis Hamilton, whose time at Mercedes has just six races to run before his move to Ferrari in 2025, he will not win this year's F1 title.

Mathematically, it is possible as there are 180 points up for grabs, and he is 151 behind leader Max Verstappen. Realistically, however, his wait will go on to secure a record-breaking eighth drivers' crown.  

A win, maybe two, is possible in the final chapter of the Hamilton-Mercedes dynasty, but hopes of a fairytale ending are fanciful. In the white-hot environment of elite sport, nine times out of 10, that ending can sometimes leave a bitter taste in the mouth. 

The Rosberg sting

The ultimate fairytale ending in F1 would be to win the world championship off your friend-turned-team-mate-turned-rival, then drop the bombshell decision to retire a few days later - just as Nico Rosberg achieved in 2016. How that one hurt Hamilton. 

Other champions who won the title and then quit include Sir Jackie Stewart (1973) and Alain Prost (1993), but it is usually in F1 that dynasties are left to crumble into ruins rather than going out in a blaze of glory.

Take Ferrari in the Michael Schumacher heyday. After trouncing the field for the fifth-straight year in 2004, drastic changes were made for '05 that brought Schumacher only a single win - the travesty of the United States GP, the infamous six-car race.

Although Ferrari bounced back for '06, it is a team that arguably still has not recovered, nearly 20 years on.

There is also the case of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull in 2014, as the four-time champion suffered a severe case of lost mojo and, even though the equipment was sub-par, he was never able to recapture the form that made him 'the man to beat'.

With one team - Mercedes - Hamilton eclipsed both of their achievements with six world titles and 84 race wins and counting, as well as accumulating a host of other records, most of which have come to the attention of Max Verstappen.

Happy endings do not happen in sport

But as sport tells us, iconic figures do not always get a triumphant farewell. 

Take eight-time Olympic gold medalist, and arguably the greatest sprinter of all time, Usain Bolt. 

Bolt became the first athlete to win the triple-triple of golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay before losing a gold from Beijing 2008 after a team-mate was found to have taken performance-enhancing drugs. 

In his final 100m race at the 2017 World Championships in London, Bolt finished just third, and in the final race of his career, pulled up whilst on the anchor leg of the 4x100m with a hamstring injury, limping across the line after refusing a wheelchair. 

Or take the fate of the 'Fab Four' in men's tennis - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Sir Andy Murray. 

After dominating the men's game and winning 65 of the 84 grands slam held between 2003 and 2023, the quartet have finally been displaced by the next generation, including the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. 

Federer, Nadal and Murray eventually all succumbed to injuries taking their toll, with the last title won by any of the trio being Nadal's 2022 French Open. Federer did not win again after the 2018 Australian Open or Murray after Wimbledon 2016.

Only Djokovic is fighting on, but even Father Time has caught up to the Serbian, with Alcaraz destroying him in the Wimbledon final earlier this year - although he did finally claim that elusive Olympic gold in Paris later in the summer. 

As with most changes of the guard in sport, the handover was brutal, unforgiving and cold. 

But on the flip-side

That is not to say iconic sporting figures do not get their moment of fame before leaving the sporting arena behind.

Take legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired after wrestling back the Premier League title in 2013. The same year, NFL quarterback Peyton Manning finally won his second Superbowl - and then promptly retired. 

But whilst Hamilton's Mercedes journey will not end with such a fairytale, that is not to say his F1 career will not. 

Hamilton has said he will not retire until he wins that record-breaking eighth world title he feels was stolen from him that infamous 2021 night in Abu Dhabi.

What better way to go out than being the man to succeed where Fernando Alonso and Vettel both failed by returning the championship to Maranello, eclipsing its greatest son in the process, and then calling it quits.

If that were to happen, Rosberg's 2016 'mic-drop' would be blown apart