LEWIS HAMILTON gifted his former Mercedes colleagues a custom piece of artwork as a show of gratitude after leaving the Formula One giants at the end of last season.
The 40-year-old called time on his 11-year stint with Mercedes in December after signing a huge contract with Ferrari.
During his time with the German team he won six world championship titles among other individual accolades.
And to show his gratitude for the support his colleagues gave him over the decade, Hamilton commissioned a unique piece of artwork from renowned motorsport artist Paul Oz.
The piece depicts the seven-time world champion’s car at the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix.
Each of his 3,000 former colleagues received a print of the artwork, with the original painting taking pride of place at the team’s Brackley headquarters.
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In a recent Instagram post which has now been deleted, Oz said: “Now that it’s public knowledge and all 3,000 Mercedes GP employees have received their prints of this, I can talk about it.
“Commissioned by Lewis himself as a departing present for everybody at Mercedes… class act!
“My only remit was that I should focus on the car rather than Lewis, and so I chose to paint an image from Monaco 2019, just a few days after Niki Lauda passed and the team ran a red halo to remember Niki. Lewis stuck it on pole then dominated the race.”
Oz is a renowned motorsport portrait artist and sculptor who also created the busts of Bruce McLaren, Ayrton Senna, James Hunt and Niki Lauda at McLaren’s base in Woking.
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Hamilton is currently taking part in pre-season testing with his new team in Barcelona.
The 2025 F1 season kicks off next month in Australia.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
