Hamilton officially stays with Mercedes: this is what happened since Abu Dhabi

Mercedes issued a press release on Friday stating what time the W13 presentation will be on February 18. An interesting detail is that it states that Lewis Hamilton will be present. With this, Mercedes finally puts an end to the soap opera of whether Hamilton will stay. A brief look back at the events since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Disappeared without a trace after podium ceremony

After losing the world title in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton did not speak up for weeks. The Briton is said to be very troubled by the loss of the title to Max Verstappen because the race management would not have acted fairly.

As a great sportsman, Hamilton congratulated Verstappen on his title and reluctantly stepped onto the podium, but nothing was heard from him for weeks after that day. The top three drivers and the winning team were required to attend the FIA post-season awards gala, but neither Hamilton nor team owner Toto Wolff attended. James Allison picked up the trophy on behalf of Mercedes.

Wolff had his doubts

Around the same time, the first rumors were already circulating: does Hamilton want to continue racing in Formula 1? The rumors became more and more intense, as even Wolff began to have doubts and told this openly in interviews with the media. In addition, there were many analysts like Karun Chandhok who also had their doubts about a longer stay for Hamilton.

Hamilton was always very active on social media until the race in Abu Dhabi, but he did not touch his accounts from mid-December until a week ago. Fans continued to speculate but became increasingly hopeful for a 'return' of Hamilton as Mercedes continued to post a lot of Hamilton content on its own Twitter account.

The 'return' of Hamilton

Saturday, February 5 was the day Hamilton finally gave a sign of life again. "I was gone. Now I'm back, " he wrote on Twitter and Instagram. Since then, it seems a certainty that Hamilton will stay with Mercedes. A few days later, on February 8, Hamilton showed some photos of his time without social media for the first time.

On February 11, Mercedes let it be known that Hamilton will be present at the presentation of the brand new Mercedes W13. He will make the presentation with new teammate George Russell and team owner Toto Wolff.