Lewis Hamilton F1 News: Fans vent fury as Mercedes 'couldn't bother' with major milestones

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, China, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 fans vent Hamilton fury as Mercedes 'couldn't bother' with major milestones

Lewis Hamilton now holds the title for longest career of a British F1 driver

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 11 June 2024 21:19 Updated: 21:33

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Lewis Hamilton has yet another accolade to add to his collection after becoming the British driver with the longest Formula 1 career in the sport's history.

The 2024 Canadian Grand Prix also marked 17 years to the day since Hamilton won his first F1 race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

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After overtaking fellow countryman and former team-mate Jenson Button, Hamilton now sets an impressive precedent for younger British drivers such as current team-mate George Russell and McLaren's Lando Norris.

The 39-year-old's career spans 17 years, 2 months, 22 days and counting.

Jenson Button previously held the record for the longest career for a British driver in F1

Mercedes have struggled so far in the 2024 season but showed promise in Canada

Despite being a momentous weekend for the seven-time world champion, Mercedes are yet to publicly acknowledge their driver's accomplishment.

The British driver had a disappointing weekend in Canada this time around, narrowly missing out on a podium to Russell, despite the Silver Arrows looking much improved in qualifying.

Hamilton still has a long way to go before taking the top spot for the lengthiest career overall, which of course belongs to Fernando Alonso.

Fans criticise Mercedes over controversial socials

Since announcing his dramatic move to Ferrari for 2025, Hamilton appears to have been pushed down the priority list at Mercedes despite driving for the Brackley outfit since 2013.

Hamilton’s official fan page, Team LH, took it upon themselves to celebrate the icon across their social media.

Even Button himself shared the success of his former McLaren team-mate via his personal Instagram story.

Fans of the sport took to Twitter to express dismay at the lack of support from Hamilton’s team, lamenting Mercedes' treatment of the star.

One account posted: "Jenson Button posting Lewis Hamilton career achievements because his own team couldn’t bother…"

Jenson Button posting Lewis Hamilton career achievements because his own team couldn’t bother… pic.twitter.com/4izd7kq2u1
— Stefanie (@fastpitstop) June 10, 2024

To this day, McLaren celebrates Lewis’ achievements and honours his story because they know and recognise it’s also theirs.
You would think that a team that is home to majority of his success would, at the very least, have the same desire to celebrate such a high-calibre driver.
— deni (@fiagirly) June 10, 2024

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A post shared by TeamLH (@team_lh)

This comes as the F1 team's Twitter account made a second error on the same weekend. This time around, fans accused the admin of seemingly ignoring Hamilton's trophy, which was earned earlier this season after a podium finish at the sprint race in China.

The official Mercedes account responded to the backlash following their post after the team's Canadian Grand Prix success.

It’s shocking how @MercedesAMGF1 keeps ignoring Lewis and what he did and does for them. What is this?!? Also while we are at it where are the Singapore podium pics? pic.twitter.com/mzcGtYM4rj
— Lusinè ✨ (@khangeldian_) June 10, 2024

This is our second trophy of the year, not our first as we mistakenly said. All Sprint and Grand Prix trophies matter to us.

Thank you for holding us to account on this mistake. https://t.co/BstKAJsbcK
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) June 11, 2024

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve