Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari for the 2025 Formula One season in a shock move away from Mercedes.
After news emerged on Thursday morning indicating talks were progressing rapidly, Mercedes announced this evening that Hamilton would leave the team at the end of this season after activating a release clause in his contract.
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A statement from Mercedes read: “The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton will part ways at the end of the 2024 season. Lewis has activated a release option in the contract announced last August and this season will therefore be his last driving for the Silver Arrows.
“The news brings an end to what is currently a 17-year long relationship in F1 with Mercedes-Benz and an 11-year long partnership with the works team.”
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Ferrari confirmed the move for Hamilton shortly after on a “multi-year contract”.
A statement read: “Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team in 2025, on a multi-year contract.”
The switch to Ferrari brings together the most successful driver and most successful team in F1 history, going down as one of the biggest driver transfer shocks the sport has known.
In announcing his exit, Hamilton said: “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.
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“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 (Wolff) 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.”
Mercedes team principal, Wolff, added: “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.
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“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. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
Hamilton will race alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari in 2025 after the Monegasque driver signed a new long-term contract last week. Carlos Sainz, a two-time race winner for Ferrari, will leave the team at the end of the season.
“Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” Sainz said in a statement.
“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 move ignites the F1 driver market ‘silly season’ close to a month before the opening race of the year in Bahrain, opening up a coveted seat at Mercedes alongside George Russell.
Hamilton, 39, signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes last August. But it would appear the inclusion of an exit clause opened the door for talks with Ferrari about 2025.
Why Hamilton is joining Ferrari
Hamilton has been linked to a Ferrari move throughout his F1 career. In May last year, when reports emerged suggesting he’d been in talks over a switch for 2024, Hamilton denied there had been any contact, while Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur claimed they “didn’t have discussions”.
Vasseur worked with Hamilton during his junior racing career and said in December they were “always in contact”, before joking: “If he signed a contract with me each time we spoke in the past, it would have cost me a fortune!”
Hamilton is also known to be close to John Elkann, Ferrari’s president, after meeting many years ago at a Google event in Italy. “That’s when our friendship started, and we’ve always remained in touch,” Hamilton said in November.
Signing Hamilton is a prospect that Elkann is thought to have long coveted. He has now secured the sport’s biggest name for his team, serving as major statement for Ferrari as it seeks to end a championship drought stretching back to 2008.
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For Hamilton, it is a major step in his bid to win an eighth drivers’ championship after controversially missing out on a record-breaking title in 2021 to Max Verstappen.
It’s a big leap of faith in Ferrari, which finished three points behind Mercedes in last year’s championship, to produce a car capable of delivering wins and a championship before calling time on his F1 career.
Hamilton won six of his seven world championships since joining Mercedes in 2013, helping build one of the most dominant teams in F1 history that claimed eight consecutive constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2021.
But Mercedes experienced a downturn in fortunes in the past two seasons, struggling to match the form of the dominant Red Bull team. It has left Hamilton without a race win since December 2021, ending his record of scoring at least one victory per season dating back to 2007.
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Where this leaves Mercedes
Hamilton’s departure comes as a big blow to Mercedes following such a long relationship that stretches right through his F1 career. Hamilton’s first F1 title, won with McLaren in 2008, came when it was Mercedes’ main team.
Hamilton said upon signing his new Mercedes contract in August that he had “unfinished business” with the team and there was “no place I would rather be.”
Mercedes has established a strong bond with Hamilton through his F1 career, working together on many off-track charitable initiatives such as Mission 44, designed to improve diversity and representation within motorsport.
But his departure leaves Mercedes contemplating potential replacements after initially planning to partner Hamilton and Russell until at least the end of the 2025 season.
The majority of the F1 grid is out of contract for next year. Only Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, and the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have their futures sewn up, leaving plenty of candidates for Hamilton’s seat.
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(Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
