The atmosphere – jovial, as first days back at school often are – did not extend to all, however. Lewis Hamilton, at long last a reigning world champion again, cut a withdrawn figure.
He monosyllabically dispatched with questions from the brunching press, refusing to follow the expansive answers of teammate Nico Rosberg or team boss Toto Wolff seated to his right.
At the fore of moody Hamilton’s mind was that the 2015 season would be his opportunity to close a career-long narrative of emulating his Formula One hero Ayrton Senna.
The result of the Australian Grand Prix three days later – pole position, fastest lap, race victory – was the template of the balance of the season in which he steamrolled a punch-drunk Nico Rosberg on the way to accomplishing his career goal.
Do not underestimate the significance of this task to Hamilton – the late Brazilian, regarded as amongst the very best drivers in the sport’s history has been the model on which Hamilton’s entire career has been based, from his aggressive driving style favouring all-out speed over long-term race management to his heart-on-his-sleeve way of going about his business off track.
Like Senna, Hamilton prides himself on being his own man; untamed, a man free from convention.
The significance of his mission became obvious in Monaco, where Hamilton ended the race an inconsolable third after a strategic blunder robbed him of what should have been his first victory around the streets of the principality his idol dominated like no other driver before or since.
At the end of the grand prix Hamilton stopped his car at the same place Senna infamously crashed in 1988 while holding an unassailable lead. The moody pre-Australia Hamilton re-emerged, the weight of the season made public.
The darkness was temporary, and Hamilton energised his negativity, as he had learnt to do the previous season at the lowest points of his title duel with Nico Rosberg, to power him to victory in Canada two weeks later.
He was bested only once more by Rosberg before the United States Grand Prix in October, where he delivered his Senna-equalling third title, just one race after surpassing Senna’s career 41 victories.
“It was always to get the three that Ayrton had,” Hamilton said after jumping out of the car. “Now I’m like, ‘I don’t know where it’s going next’. There is no-one else I look to that I want to equal or emulate now.”
Hamilton’s nine-year Formula One life has been characterised by trying to find the space to become the man that would be capable of shouldering this self-imposed burden.
Leaving McLaren for the personal freedom of Mercedes was the first part. Seeing off his teammate to stamp his authority on the team in 2014 was the second. Only the statistics remained to validate his efforts.
“I’m just going to start. I feel like I’ve got the baton now for myself and Ayrton, and I’m going to carry it as far as I can, as strong as I can and keep building and see where I take it.”
As the sun sets on the Formula One season owned by the triple world champion, two men are left to brood on their futures – Nico Rosberg dwells on rebuilding his reputation while Sebastian Vettel plots his return to championship glory with a resurgent Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, is waiting contentedly for the dawn of the 2016 season, waiting to begin again.
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