Mercedes make LATE Hamilton change in official FIA announcement at Qatar Grand Prix

An official FIA announcement has revealed a late change to Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes F1 car at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The seven-time Formula 1 world champion is preparing to partake in his final two races as a Mercedes driver, before he makes the move to Ferrari for the 2025 season.

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His Mercedes partnership has spanned 12 seasons, and has yielded six drivers' championship titles for Hamilton, and eight constructors' championships.

Despite this, Hamilton's farewell season has been pretty miserable, with two victories in Britain and Belgium masking a year in which he has been outperformed by team-mate George Russell in both qualifying and races.

Hamilton car change made for Qatar GP

Hamilton is currently sitting down in seventh in the drivers' championship, and needs a strong final two races if he wants to beat team-mate Russell in the championship, who is currently nine points ahead of his fellow Brit.

Now, heading into the Qatar GP weekend where Hamilton will be frantically searching for his third race win of the season following Mercedes' strong weekend in Las Vegas last time out, a key change has been made to the champion's car.

Hamilton will have a new-look gearbox, with the FIA confirming in an official document that the team will be changing Hamilton's gearbox case and cassette, as well as his gearbox driveline and gear change components.

The seven-time world champion is the only driver this weekend to be taking a new gearbox, but Hamilton will not face a penalty as he is still within his allowed allocation for the season.

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