Most drivers would thoughtfully send a departing mechanic a farewell card, or gift them a signed helmet, but not Lewis Hamilton.
The 37-year-old has a taste for the extreme and has shown his fun-loving side once again as Mercedes bid farewell to his number one mechanic, Nathan Divey, who will be joining Ferrari in 2023.
To celebrate Divey’s last race with Mercedes, Hamilton surprised the mechanic in Abu Dhabi by taking him on a hot lap of the Yas Marina circuit in a Mercedes-AMG GT R, telling Divey, “I thought it would be kind of cool since this was your last race.”
Hamilton’s mechanic has been with Mercedes since 2010, meaning that he has worked with the seven-time world champion for the majority of his career and is very much deserving of such a send-off.
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“Thank you so much, that’s amazing”, said Divey to Hamilton following the end of the hot lap, clearly appreciating the gesture of the 37-year-old.
The top speed of the Mercedes driven by Hamilton is approximately 197 mph, so Divey got quite the adrenaline ride, especially when Lewis Hamilton of all people was behind the wheel.
It is good to see Hamilton in such high spirits following the 2022 season finale in Abu Dhabi, as the seven-time world champion completed the first winless season of his career and finished below his new teammate George Russell.
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Hamilton arguably had more fun on the track with his engineer than he did over the course of the race weekend, as only laps from the end of the Grand Prix, the Brit was forced to retire from the race with a hydraulic problem.
Mercedes have experienced a slow start to the new regulations that came into effect at the start of the season just gone, with Toto Wolff claiming that his team got the physics involved with the new car ‘totally wrong’.
The Austrian has however claimed that he is confident of his team’s ability to make amends in 2023, as he expects their shortcomings in 2022 to go down as a minor blip in their record rather than the beginning of a drought, like Red Bull and Ferrari have experience in recent years.