Revealed: Lewis Hamilton left F1 replacement Kimi Antonelli secret message at Mercedes

Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli in 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

Revealed: Lewis Hamilton left Antonelli secret message at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton passed the torch to Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes

Originally written by Matthew Hobkinson. This version is a translation.

Thursday 15 May 2025 19:00

A Mercedes chief has revealed that Lewis Hamilton left rookie Kimi Antonelli a message after announcing that he would leave the team for Ferrari last year.

The seven-time Formula 1 champion left a handwritten note for the teenager after the Italian Grand Prix last year, when Antonelli came in for a practice session.

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As Mercedes use the same motorhome for all European races, Antonelli is now set to read the note in its entirety when the team head to Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix this weekend.

Ahead of lights out, Mercedes' race team co-ordinator, Stephen Lord, recalled the moment Hamilton left the note for Antonelli and even revealed parts of its content.

Lewis Hamilton shows class with Kimi Antonelli message

“It's quite an interesting insight into Lewis that perhaps people don't see,” Lord told Beyond The Grid. “It was after the race in Monza, obviously the last European round. Lewis was upstairs. He did the engineering debrief.

“Lewis had finished engineering. I think the engineers had left so Lewis was upstairs in the room on his own. I popped up, grabbed a couple of bits, came back down the stairs, and Lewis came down the stairs ready to leave and head home.

“He got to the bottom of the stairs and he stopped, then he turned around and he went back upstairs. I thought ‘he’s forgotten something,’ didn't think much of it. He came back down about 10 minutes later and he grabbed a guy that works for the team, Carlos, who's our head of race team logistics.

“And you could see that Lewis was really quite emotional and he grabbed Carlos and said, ‘it's only just occurred to me, I'm never going to see that room ever again. I'm really emotional. I can't leave. I feel kind of sad to walk away from that room because I've been in that room for so many years and I'm never going to see it again.’ He was really quite touched that he was leaving it behind.”

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But it was when Lord went up to the room following Hamilton's exit where he discovered the note that the seven-time world champion had left for Anotnelli.

“I walked into the room and on the wall there’s quite a long, handwritten note,” he added. “It was a note to Kimi and it was basically welcoming him to his new room, and it was wishing him the best of luck, saying some really nice things about the team and how, ‘if you care for them, they'll care for you because they're a great team.’

“I thought, ‘wow, what a nice thing to do.’ And actually we've had glass cut and it's now covered in the room so it will be there forever more."

Hamilton also showed his more playful side with one bonus message in the bathroom.

"I thought I'd just go into the bathroom and make sure that everything's been packed away and we've got all we need," Lord continued.

“I walked into the bathroom and next to the toilet, above the toilet roll holder, was ‘Lewis was here’ with a big smiley face and I thought, ‘okay, I like that.’ But the note to Kimi was pretty special.”

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes Kimi Antonelli Italian Grand Prix