Admitting that this year has been one of his worst, Lewis Hamilton insists the highs at Mercedes outweigh the negatives.

As the German team prepares to bid farewell to the driver with which it has won six drivers' titles, the Briton admitted that it has been an emotional year for him.

In February, before a wheel had turned in anger, came the shock news that the seven-time world champion was leaving Brackley for Maranello.

While such a move had been speculated about for years, based on the success Hamilton had enjoyed with Mercedes, not to mention Ferrari's poor record when it comes to employing world champions, few took it seriously.

Hence, February's announcement shocked everyone, not least his boss at Mercedes, Toto Wolff.

"The first meeting with Toto at the beginning of the year was awkward," Hamilton told reporters in Abu Dhabi. "Of course it was awkward from the get-go.

"The day after I took the team paintballing and they had just found out," he added, " I got a lot of shots and had loads of bruises. People went in on me that day.

"I anticipated it would be difficult but massively underestimated how difficult," he admitted. "It was straining on the relationship very early on. It took time for people to get past it."

Hamilton's last title was in 2020, what would... should have been his record eighth ended in controversy in Abu Dhabi in December 2021, and since then both he and his team have struggled.

However, sheer hard work and determination from the German team saw a return to form, but along the way there was much pain, and this year it appeared all the more obvious.

"For my own self, it's been a very emotional year for me and I think I've not been at my best in dealing with those emotions," he said. "I think you've all seen the worst of me and the best of me and I'm not going to apologise for either because I'm only human and I'm not always going to get it right.

"I would definitely say this year has been one of the worst in terms of handling it from my side, which I'll try to be better at.

"I hope the good and the highs far outweigh the negatives in terms of how I've behaved. I just remember the good times and I've built some incredible relationships.

"When you go through a season together with so many people, not only on those weekends you are riding highs and lows together but also in their personal lives, through marriages, through divorces, through loss of family members, through cancer, through all sorts. You are going through all these moments with people and it's a really beautiful journey you go on together. Being there for so long, the emotions run so deep."