Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes for Ferrari next year
Lewis Hamilton is to leave Mercedes at the end of the season and join Ferrari for 2025. Throughout Thursday several outlets have reported that the seven-time world champion will leave Mercedes after twelve years and partner Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes F1 staff were told in a meeting with team principal Toto Wolff and technical director James Allison on Thursday afternoon.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari in 2025 was initially reported in the Italian and Spanish media on Thursday. There have been intermittent rumours of Hamilton moving to Ferrari for years,
The Hamilton deal has happened quickly, activating break clause after one year, opting for a late change of scenery in the autumn of his career, and a reunion with Ferrari team principal Fed Vasseur, who was the Briton’s team boss at ART in GP2.
Ferrari was in negotiations over a contract extension with Carlos Sainz, whose deal runs out at the end of this season.
A twelve-year partnership ends as spectacularly as it began, a shocking move from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, resulted in six world championships in eight years, all brought to an end by Max Verstappen in 2021.
The seven-time champion is the most successful driver in the sports history one hundred and three wins and a hundred and four poles in a seventeen-year career, the majority with Mercedes. Hamilton will replace Carlos Sainz as team-mate to Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton and Sainz will keep racing for Mercedes and Ferrari respectively for this upcoming 2024 season. Ferrari president John Elkann then discovered that Hamilton was a possibility and moved to secure his signature. The two are friends and have met each other socially on a number of occasions in recent years.
The biggest driver move in recent times will shake up the 2025 driver market before pre-season testing. But the move has parallels with his shock move to Mercedes in 2013, a year before a major regulation change then he went on to dominate the next seven seasons only losing the title to teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016.
On the move to Ferrari, he said, “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.”
“I will be forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together. I am 100% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
But the way his eighth title was denied following the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when Hamilton lost out to Max Verstappen after former FIA race director Michael Masi ignored the rules in operating a late-race safety car period.
Since then, he has been driven by the desire to avenge what he believes to be an injustice and win his eighth title. But the move is a huge surprise as Mercedes and Hamilton wanted to put what they viewed as an injustice in the way he lost his eighth title.
Hamilton only signed a two-year contract with Mercedes last year, while Carlos Sainz wasn’t re-signed by Ferrari earlier this year as rumours of him being touted by Audi who will enter in 2026. Leclerc has been at Ferrari since 2019 and Hamilton will be his third team-mate at Scuderia, having partnered Sebastian Vettel for two seasons and Sainz since 2021.
On Thursday, Ferrari’s share price soared more than 10% to hit a new record high on the New York Stock Exchange. That could, however, be unrelated given earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization forecast to grow to $2.64 billion this year on a healthy order book, there was a notable step change.
The lure of Ferrari, the sport’s most historic and evocative team, is strong for many drivers. But his two long-time rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso both were drawn to Ferrari but never managed to win a championship for the Scuderia. The sport’s longest severing team have not won a driver’s championship since Hamilton beat Felipe Massa by a single point in a dramatic title decider in Sao Paulo 2008.
The move will have wide ramifications for the 2025 driver market, but Mercedes has few options, with Max Verstappen signed until 2027 and Leclerc and Norris both in recent weeks signing unspecified new contracts with Ferrari and McLaren.