Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari from Mercedes

In a blockbuster move, Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari from Mercedes starting with the 2025 Formula 1 season. Ferrari have long courted the Briton but their offers had been rejected because the seven-time champion felt Mercedes offered him a better route to success.

That, however, has changed after two challenging seasons for Mercedes where Hamilton didn’t win a single race.

The 39-year-old will partner current driver Charles Leclerc, replacing Carlos Sainz.

Hamilton had signed a two-year contract with Mercedes for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but the deal reportedly contained a clause allowing him to leave after one season.

The Briton won the last of his world titles in 2020 but lost the 2021 championship in controversial fashion to Max Verstappen when the race director ignored the safety car rules, effectively blocking the Briton’s route to victory in both that Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the championship.

Hamilton has never hidden his anger at the 2021 incident, believing he was robbed of an eighth title that would have put him on one more than Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.

Team Statement

Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team in 2025, on a multi-year contract. pic.twitter.com/moEMqUgzXH

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 1, 2024

The Dutch Red Bull driver has dominated the sport since, while Hamilton finished sixth in the drivers’ standings in 2022 and third in 2023.

Hamilton, who had won his first title with McLaren in 2008, had joined Mercedes in 2013. He won the championship six times, in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, with the Silver Arrows. His 103rd and last race win came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

He has made clear his frustration with the performance of his Mercedes car in the last two years and might believe a move to Ferrari would enable him to reignite his challenge for that elusive title.

However Ferrari have also suffered patchy form in the last few seasons although they seemed to find momentum towards the end of the 2023 season.

That improvement was not enough to prevent Mercedes beating them to second place behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

Despite his long-term association with Mercedes, Hamilton has remained close to Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur after winning Formula Three and GP2 (now Formula Two) championships with his ART team as a junior. The Frenchman said last August that he had talked to Hamilton at every race weekend.

In 2019, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton and Mercedes had discussed the possibility of his switch to Ferrari and such a move would be no drama.

(with inputs from AFP)