As part of Hamilton’s farewell surprise, Mercedes organised for him to drive three of his former cars at Silverstone, including his 2013 (W04), 2014 (W05), and 2018 (W09) cars.
The 39-year-old opened up about his reaction to the surprise in an emotional video posted on X.
"I woke up this morning, if I’m really honest I didn’t know that I would be driving the cars," Hamilton said.
"I thought we were coming up to drive just some of them AMG’s that sometimes we get the opportunity to drive up here with Toto.
"So when I arrived and saw the signs and then saw the three cars in the garage I knew that I’d get to drive those. That was a bit of a shock I didn’t realise - I wasn’t prepped to get into a Formula 1 car today.
"But the feeling of getting into the 13 car, it really brought back the memories from my first test. It really felt like the first time getting back in 2013 when I first did the test in Jerez, it was very reminiscent of that.
"So I got all of these kind of butterflies getting ready to go out and it was obviously a little bit damp to start off with and then hopping into the 14 car which is just so much different from the V8 to the V6, but the car that we won the championship in.
"I think just the emotions of joining the team when everyone was saying it wasn’t a good decision, to winning in that 13 car then winning the championship in the 14 car, it was really great to have those memories come back and that feeling come back."