Lewis Hamilton has had a meteoric career at Mercedes. Six of his seven world championships came while racing with Mercedes, where he has spent the past 12 seasons.
Hamilton’s time at Mercedes is coming to an end. The English driver will make a surprise switch from Mercedes to Ferrari in 2025, Ferrari announced on February 1. The move could see the old Italian racing logo secure the name of its first driver. since 2007.
Your 2025 line-up for Scuderia Ferrari! ?? #F1 @ScuderiaFerrari pic. twitter. com/EUBpsTnVue
Mercedes broke the news by pronouncing that Hamilton had activated a clause in his contract to leave after the 2024 season.
The announcement came as a big surprise to fans of the 39-year-old, who signed an extension with Mercedes in 2023 and who many had pushed back Italian teams for the last time, positioning himself to retire with Mercedes.
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The move will unite Formula 1’s biggest star with the oldest and most successful racing team in the sport’s history. Here’s what you want to know about Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes.
The explanation for why Ferrari sought out Hamilton is clear. The iconic racing logo has been searching for a driving force that lives up to its illustrious pedigree for some time and has struggled in recent years on the track. Ferrari has not had a world champion driving force since Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in 2007.
Ferrari chairman John Elkann was looking to win a big decision and has long been a fan of Hamilton, according to ESPN. Ferrari’s second driver, Carlos Sainz, involved in a contract dispute, has created a vacancy for Hamilton at Ferrari.
It’s unclear exactly what prompted Hamilton’s departure from Mercedes. He and Mercedes have endured back-to-back disappointing seasons, Hamilton taking no wins in 2022 and just one in 2023. Even before the start of the 2023 season, Hamilton lamented that the team is “not where we were looking to start the season. “
Despite this, Hamilton still signed the extension with Mercedes mid-season, signing his two-year contract on August 31, 2023, before the start of the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton has been connected to Ferrari at several events in his career, and was added during negotiations for his 2023 contract with Mercedes. But Mercedes chairman Toto Wolff was convinced that although Hamilton and Ferrari would meet, Hamilton would remain at Mercedes.
The allure of racing under Ferrari’s iconic logo, coupled with long-term considerations about winning at Mercedes, would have arguably led Hamilton to transfer teams. Although Ferrari, like other racing teams, has struggled to maintain speed with Red Bull, the chance of winning with an iconic logo like Ferrari may also depend more on the ancient legacy Hamilton has already cultivated in the sport.
Recent technical issues with Mercedes would possibly have also led to Hamilton’s exit. Mercedes introduced a ‘pod zero’ design on its Silver Arrows in a bid to take advantage of the new floor effects regulations implemented in 2022, however, the design has changed. Much of it struggled, leading to the repositioning of the team’s technical director in 2023.
Ferrari has announced that it has signed a multi-year contract with Hamilton. On Friday it reported that Hamilton’s contract would allow him to earn around $100 million a year between his salary, endorsements, rights to symbols and bonuses, which would quickly place him among the highest-paid drivers in the history of Scuderia Ferrari, according to Paolo D’Alessandro and Giuliano. Duchess of Formula 1.
The report calls Hamilton’s contract a “bottom-up” contract, meaning he has a steady base salary that will accrue year after year.
Hamilton signed a contract with Mercedes that was intended to keep him locked into the team until 2025.
Not long ago, Hamilton’s future was sealed at Mercedes. He signed a two-year extension with Mercedes on August 31, 2023, which would allow him to continue racing with the team until the end of the 2025 campaign.
“We dream every day of being the most productive and we’ve committed the last decade to achieving that goal,” Hamilton said at the time, according to Sky Sports. “Being at your best doesn’t happen overnight. “In a short amount of time, it takes commitment, hard work and determination and it was an honor to enter the history books with this team. “
Lewis’ deal clearly contained a clause that allowed him to leave after the 2024 season, according to Mercedes’ announcement.
The current Ferrari team is made up of Charles Leclerc and Sainz.
Leclerc signed with Ferrari in 2019 to upgrade Raikkonen, leaving Sauber after just one season with the team. Leclerc, 26, has not won a championship but has five wins and 30 podiums to his name. He finished alone with Max Verstappen in the 2022 Drivers’ World Championship. ‘Championship.
Leclerc signed an extension with Ferrari in 2021. The deal will keep him with the team until 2024. Just days before Hamilton’s announcement of a move to Ferrari, Leclerc agreed to the extension, delaying his deal until the end of the 2026 campaign.
Sainz, the son of two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr. , has recovered a little more from his Formula 1 career. He made his Red Bull debut in 2015 and has since worked at Renault and McLaren before replacing Sebastian Vettel at Team Ferrari in 2021. Originally signed to a two-year contract, he signed an extension in 2022 that would keep him with the team through the end of 2024.
With Ferrari, Sainz has won a race in each of the past two years, winning the 2022 British Grand Prix and the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. These are the only two F1 wins of his career. It’s the only non-Red Bull reason to win a race in 2023.
Sainz was looking for an extension at Ferrari, but as Hamilton is expected to sign up for the Italian racing team in 2025, Sainz will press ahead after the 2024 season.
Sainz has publicly stated that he does not need to race in the final year of his contract with no promises for the future, and is said to have sought a two-year extension that would keep him locked up until 2026. But Motorsport and others have reported that Ferrari has been looking for opportunities to potentially upgrade Sainz.
Sainz will have the opportunity to sign for a new team at the end of the season. He was either a candidate to sign for Audi in 2026 or could simply return to Red Bull with Sergio Perez questionable for the 2025 season, according to ESPN. With Hamilton’s departure, Mercedes also has a place to move up another driver.