- Hamilton plans to personally arrange where every driver sits at next F1 dinner.
- Tradition started as a one-off farewell in 2022 for Sebastian Vettel in Abu Dhabi.
- Hamilton named two drivers he wants to sit next to at this year’s dinner.
Lewis Hamilton wants to take charge of where his fellow drivers sit at his next end-of-season dinner.
The seven-time world champion told Cosmopolitan he plans to create a formal seating plan for the gathering, with the specific goal of putting drivers next to people they would not normally spend time with.
Hamilton started the dinner in spite of, not because of, his natural instincts on a race weekend. In a recent conversation, he told Cosmopolitan that competition leaves little room for genuine conversation in the paddock.
“In my mind, I’m there for one reason, and that’s to win, not to make conversation and talk about holidays, because that’s what they talk about, or gaming,” he said.
The drivers’ briefings and parades place everyone in the same room, but Hamilton found that proximity alone does not build real relationships. The dinner was his answer to that problem.
A Mexico briefing, a farewell for Seb, and a tradition is born
The first dinner came together ahead of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton proposed the idea to his fellow drivers at a briefing in Mexico, framing it as a farewell for Sebastian Vettel, who was retiring from the sport that season.
“I set up this dinner, and I asked them all at a drivers’ briefing in Mexico. I said, ‘Look, I was thinking of putting this together. Will you come?’ And they all accepted,” Hamilton said. “I’ve just put it on for the last few years now.”
All 20 drivers attended. It was the first time the full grid had shared a meal together since the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix.
Vettel gave a speech that evening, passing on lessons from his career to the younger drivers. Hamilton later wrote on social media: “We’ve come a long way as drivers and continue to grow as men.”
What began as a one-night farewell quickly became an annual fixture, driven by the drivers themselves wanting to repeat it.
Hamilton has a seating plan in mind for 2026
At past dinners, Hamilton has sat beside Charles Leclerc and, on another occasion, his former Mercedes teammate George Russell. The principle behind the seating has always been to pair drivers with someone outside their usual circle.
“It’s a really amazing night. Each time, we’re all sitting next to a different driver, perhaps someone we’re not as close to, because there are drivers that are closer to other drivers. It forces real, fun conversation,” he told Cosmopolitan.
He added that the setting strips away the competitive armour drivers carry through the season.
“We’re all so competitive with each other, and we all want to win. It creates a cool moment for us to just have a laugh. You get to see some of the really cool, fun characters, things that you didn’t know about the individuals as well, because you usually see them with a visor on.”
For the next edition, Hamilton said he intends to be more deliberate about who sits where. “I think for the next one, I probably will make a seating plan,” he told the magazine.
When asked who he would most like to sit beside, Hamilton named two drivers: Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Audi veteran Nico Hulkenberg.
Hamilton had already singled out Hadjar as his favourite among the 2025 rookie class earlier in the year, calling the young Frenchman “really cool.”
After the 20-year-old claimed his first podium at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton commented “legend” on his Instagram post. Hadjar later said the moment felt surreal, that Hamilton had made him dream as a child.
It is a long way from a drivers’ briefing in Mexico, where Hamilton once asked his fellow drivers if they would simply show up for dinner. Apparently, they still do.
