Lewis Hamilton now finally has a chance to escape the ghosts of

Most of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 race weekends with Mercedes over the last two years have followed a broadly similar pattern.

Friday would invariably be the day for brutal reality to hit home, the extent of Mercedes’ distance to the front dawning on him over the opening two practice sessions, before something happened overnight.

Every week, almost without fail, Hamilton would then return to the track on Saturday and Sunday totally transformed, unflinchingly positive about the team, their situation and pretty much everything else.

Will Lewis Hamilton win with Ferrari after leaving Mercedes?

We’re not where we want to be right now, he would say, but we’re slowly getting there. I have every faith in the quality of this team that we can get back to where he belong and soon.

a move to totally transform the tone of the closing years of his career and will finally give Hamilton the chance to escape the ghosts of Abu Dhabi 2021.

For as long as he remained a Mercedes driver this side of 2021, Hamilton was a hostage to that night at Yas Marina – a diminished, slightly haunted figure fighting to reclaim a title that in all likelihood he won’t ever get back.

The spectre of Abu Dhabi has hung over every move he has made since, his wounds salted the moment it became apparent in early 2022 that Mercedes had failed to provide him a car with which to instantly strike back and condemning him to a cycle of never-ending frustration.

More than once over the last two years Hamilton has expressed a desire to take back what was taken from him, warning that he will not give up until he does.

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, has likewise spoken of a “personal anger” driving him to help Hamilton win a record-breaking eighth World Championship and thus cement his status as the greatest driver in history, yet there comes a point when those intentions clash with cold, hard reality