Well, it’s official – seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will be donning red in 2025 in a sensational move from Mercedes-AMG Petronas to Scuderia Ferrari, one that he says was “one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.” All the key players have confirmed the news, bringing to rest a whirlwind of speculation that kicked off yesterday evening.
Mercedes was the first to announce Hamilton’s shock departure, stating that the 39-year-old Briton had activated a release option in the two-year contract he had only just signed last year.
“In terms of a team-driver pairing, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has seen, and that’s something we can look back on with pride; Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history.
“However, we knew our partnership would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come. We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate,” said team boss Toto Wolff.
Hamilton added: “I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together. Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge.”
Ferrari then responded with a simple one-liner, confirming it has signed Hamilton on a “multi-year” basis for 2025 onwards. He will be partnering Charles Leclerc, the Scuderia’s North Star and de facto number one driver who himself signed a contract extension with Maranello last week.
In turn, Carlos Sainz Jr – who ironically secured the team’s sole win in Singapore in 2023, the only non-Red Bull driver to do so – will be vacating his seat next year to make way for Hamilton. The Spaniard appears to have been just as taken aback by the news as the rest of us, stating: “Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024.
“We still have a long season ahead of us and, like always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the
Tifosi all around the world. News about my future will be announced in due course.”
The news draws a line under Hamilton’s incredible career-long relationship with Mercedes, which has powered him to all seven of his drivers’ titles – one at McLaren, six at the works team. His own bombshell move to Mercedes back in 2013 proved inspired, as it executed the seismic shift to turbo hybrid engines to perfection the following year, kicking off an unprecedented run of dominance.
But the Brackley-based team dropped the ball with the current ground effect regulations, winning just one race – George Russell claiming the honour in Brazil in 2022 – in the last two years. Hamilton’s departure is a startling vote of no confidence in Mercedes, doing so before what will now be his final season with the team has even begun – and having yet to turn a wheel in anger in the new W15.
At Ferrari, Hamilton will be chasing that elusive eighth world championship, righting what he will undoubtedly see as an injustice in losing out to Max Verstappen at that controversial Abu Dhabi race in 2021; he will also be looking to end the team’s title drought that stretches to 2008. It is by no means an easy feat, as he will be going up against Leclerc, a devastatingly fast driver that has rebuilt the team in his own image.
Speculation over the second Ferrari seat had been mounting ever since Leclerc’s aforementioned signing. The team had been widely expected to retain Sainz given his strong performances last year, but it had been dragging its feet with the contract extension – and now we know why. It’s now likely that Sainz will make the much-anticipated move to Stake (née Sauber) ahead of it becoming the Audi works team in 2026.
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