Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has received a classy happy birthday message from his former team McLaren. The Brit turns 39 today (Sunday 7th January), and he will be hoping to enjoy further success on the track before he walks away from Formula One.
Hamilton is one of F1’s most decorated drivers, winning the joint-most Drivers’ Championships (seven) and recording the most ever race wins (103). The majority of his triumphs have come since he joined Mercedes in 2013, though McLaren played a pivotal role in his career.
After coming through the karting ranks and competing in GP2, Hamilton joined the team in 2007 and partnered up with defending world champion Fernando Alonso. The Brit trumped his teammate in his debut season to come second in the championship before going one better the following year.
Hamilton struggled to replicate that success in the following two seasons, before announcing that he was set to join Mercedes – and he hasn’t looked back since. Though McLaren still clearly hold the Stevenage-born star in high regard.
On Sunday morning, the team sent Hamilton a happy birthday message on X, formerly known as Twitter, alongside a series of photos of him as a McLaren driver. The post read: “Happy birthday to seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
“Thank you for all the memories. Have a great day, Sir Lewis.” The tweet racked up over 6,000 likes in three hours, with many sending their well wishes to Hamilton.
Mercedes then posted: “He’s a 7x World Champion. A game changer and a change maker. He’s royalty. Happy Birthday, Sir@LewisHamilton.”
The official F1 account also wrote: “Wishing Sir Lewis Hamilton a very Happy Birthday!”
The Mercedes star will be hoping to get back to winning ways aged 39, with former driver Christijan Albers firmly of the belief that he is the only man capable of preventing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from dominating another season.
He told De Telegraaf: “For the neutral observer, I hope that Mercedes will come with a better car in 2024. Because if you look purely at the qualities of the current drivers, I think Lewis Hamilton is the only one who can come close to Verstappen.
“I am mainly talking about the quality of being able to perform consistently and be very stable in lap times during a race.
“Just like Verstappen, Hamilton is someone who can manage his tyres wonderfully. Assessing certain situations, feeling the rubber; in that respect they are alone.”
