Lewis Hamilton in painful night flight on Toto Wolff party plane

Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton had what surely must have been a painful flight home from the Brazilian Grand Prix after catching a ride with his old boss Toto Wolff amid Mercedes' title celebrations.

Wolff would have been in great spirits after Sunday's race in Sao Paulo despite a difficult day for his drivers, who both spun at different stages and came home in P4 and P5. Crucially, though, the points secured were enough to wrap up the constructors' championship for the Silver Arrows.

It is Mercedes' ninth constructors' championship in total, seeing them tie Williams on the all-time constructors' championship win list. They are now one championship behind McLaren (10) and seven behind Ferrari (16).

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Lewis Hamilton on awkward plane trip with Toto Wolff

When speaking after the championship was wrapped up, Wolff didn't divulge too much information on his or his team's plans to celebrate.

He did, however, reveal that he planned on having a drink on his flight back to Europe, revealing that George Russell and Hamilton were set to be on board his plane.

Hamilton, of course, was a major part of Mercedes' success over the last decade and a half, and could have been a part of the celebrations on Sunday had he not left for Ferrari at the end of 2024. Instead, he was left questioning another lack of communication from his team and forced to watch his old boss and team-mate celebrate.

"As for the party, I don't know yet. Now it's another flight, another night flight," Wolff said in Sao Paulo.

"George will be on that night flight, so maybe we'll have a drink, a constructors' drink. We're taking Lewis along too, so we'll see; maybe he'll need one for in bed!"

Wolff then hinted that the celebrations would continue once everyone was back at base.

"And then we'll figure out what we're going to do regarding the festivities when we get back to the UK," he concluded.

All eyes on 2027 for Wolff

Wolff also suggested that the celebrations would not be too heavy for himself, with the Mercedes chief already focused on doing it all again next year.

"I'm fully on it [2027] already. I mean, my team says to me that I'm miserable because I never get to celebrate these moments," said Wolff.

"When the race was finished, Bradley [Lord, deputy team principal] said to me, 'You've got to put at least a smile on your face for the cameras,' and I said, 'I can't, you know, this is me!'

"I'm just thinking, 'What went wrong in this race? Why have we underperformed? And what can we do for Las Vegas and next year?' But that's just part of my character.”

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Written by

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson - F1 Editor

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