The dream Lewis Hamilton F1 retirement scenario featuring Max Verstappen
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen: the best of enemies
Tom Coronel has doubled down on his “Steven Spielberg” crescendo in the movie of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 tale, deciding the Briton wins his eighth title in Abu Dhabi this year and immediately bows from the sport.
Climbing into the Ferrari in 2026 to replace him? Well, that would be Max Verstappen.
Hamilton v Verstappen dream: That last race, that last lap…
Hamilton heads into his 19th season in Formula 1 with the Briton having swapped Mercedes for Ferrari in a bid to cement his place in history by breaking his tie with Michael Schumacher at the team that the German made his own to become F1’s only eight-time World Champion.
It has the potential to be a blockbuster. Even more so if Hamilton races Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship given it was the Red Bull driver who dethroned him in 2021.
That season Hamilton came undone a lap away from winning his eighth title when Verstappen overtook him on the very last lap of the championship in Abu Dhabi to win the Grand Prix and the World title.
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Unable to fight back in the ensuing years with Mercedes, Hamilton announced last year that he’d taken one final throw of the dice by signing a multi-year agreement to join Ferrari in F1 2025.
Coronel believes it could it come with a blockbuster ending.
Put to him that 2025 presents the perfect opportunity for Hamilton to win his eighth crown, the Dutch racing director told RacingNews365: “Yes, that’s what I want. That’s what I’ve described as the new Netflix finale, which they can then use for 2026.
“Look, of course it’s about wanting to drive at Ferrari and that you want to be and become the best ever.”
But as the Hamilton storyline that he wants to see unfolds in Abu Dhabi, Coronel went one further in his prediction.
“If he takes that eighth World title, if I can play Steven Spielberg for a while, the dream is that he will say there on that podium, ‘I retire’,” he said.
“Then there will be a nice seat available for a young, wild dog, or perhaps, you don’t know, the chance to see other big names in the red suit.”
The big name he’d like to see take that seat? Red Bull’s quadruple World Champion Verstappen.
“If I were the director of the film,” he continued, “I would have wanted to see Max Verstappen at Ferrari a long time ago.
“Then I would have sent a blank cheque to the Verstappen family, ‘you fill in the amount, just so you know: you’re going to drive that red car this year’. It wasn’t, it was Lewis Hamilton.
“I understand that, second choice, sometimes you have to do something like Fred Vasseur. But this is a wish I have, yes. It would be very cool.”
As for how Hamilton could take the title this season, last lap misfortunate for Verstappen is Coronel’s preferred scenario.
“That last race, that last lap, always Max and Lewis competing with each other,” he said. “And then something very strange happens, a valve cap breaks or something Max can’t do anything about, and then Lewis becomes champion.”
