(Image via formula1.com)

Volunteer Writer: Akshit Bagga

Email: abagga@umassd.edu

In one of Formula 1’s most shocking moves ever in the driver market, Lewis Hamilton is set to leave Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season and join Ferrari on a multi-year deal starting next year.  

The Brackley-based Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team announced through their social media that they would part ways with the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at the end of the 2024 season after Lewis decided to activate a release clause in his contract, which was announced last year. 

Ferrari swiftly followed up and confirmed his signing.

Lewis Hamilton dominated F1 from 2014 to 2020 after switching from McLaren to Mercedes at the end of the 2013 season. Hamilton won six of seven world titles with the Silver Arrows (Mercedes) and matched Michael Schumacher’s streak. 

His winning record stands at 103, his pole position record at 104, and his podium finishes, with 197, stand as the highest in the sport’s history.

While the motorsports enthusiast felt that Lewis Hamilton would retire from Silver Arrows and become an ambassador for the team, whenever he decided to hang up his helmet, it is said that Lewis to Ferrari was a sensational move long in the making. 

According to the official Formula1 website, it was last spring when Hamilton first received a call from Ferrari chairman John Elkann, only for him to decline the offer; however, it was in the winter, at the end of the 2023 season, that Hamilton weighed all his options and became more interested in signing a Ferrari deal.

Last, Lewis Hamilton claimed the top step of the podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021, and from there on, the road of F1 has been a tough one for him and Mercedes. Lewis did not win a race after losing the 2021 world title in the last lap of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to Max Verstappen. 

The ground effect rule set was introduced in the 2022 season, which made it challenging for the Silver Arrows to create a car that could match the Red Bulls.

The F1’s aerodynamic phenomena porpoising Mercedes’s zero sidepod car design added to Lewis’s challenges in 2022, making the car undrivable for him. 

The 2022 season was Lewis Hamilton’s first winless season, and he finished sixth in the drivers’ championship, additionally being outperformed by teammate George Russell. However, 2023 was much better, with Lewis Hamilton outperforming George and securing third place in the drivers’ championship only after the dominant Red Bull Racing driver pairing of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Penning a note on his Instagram, Lewis stated that his decision to leave Mercedes was “the hardest I’ve ever had to make.”

With his appreciation for his eleven years of partnership with Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, he mentioned, “The time has come for me to start a new chapter in my life and I will be joining Scuderia Ferrari in 2025.” 

It was Hamilton’s childhood dream to drive the Ferrari red.

While Ferrari’s team principal, Frédéric Vasseur, is excited about the 2025 season, Mercedes’s team boss, Toto Wolff, said, “In a way, Formula 1 and my previous life have made me imperious to surprises.” He also mentioned, “I hold no grudge.”

The driver market for the 2025 season is already buzzing, even though the first week of February marks the start of the F1 2024 season. It is expected that there will be a lot of movements among the twenty drivers on the grid for the 2025 season since almost twelve of them are out of contract.

Big teams like Red Bull Racing and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 have vacant seats each for the 2025 season, and many drivers could be willing to make a shot for the top spots.

Hamilton will join Charles Leclerc at Ferrari for the 2025 lineup while replacing the current Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz.

It will be interesting to see the oldest team in F1 join forces with the most successful driver in F1.