It’s the tip of an period — and the largest driver transfer in System One historical past.
After 12 seasons, six world championships and 82 race wins, Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari.
It’s a day most thought would by no means come. Hamilton himself mentioned final 12 months he anticipated to stay with Mercedes “til my final days”, and there was “no place I might reasonably be.”
However the attraction of a shock transfer to Ferrari, introduced for 2025 on Thursday, proved too sturdy for the seven-time champion in search of a record-breaking eighth world title.
It’s the type of transfer F1 followers — and the figures on the high of the game itself — may have solely dreamed of ever taking place. Partnering Hamilton, F1’s most well-known and profitable driver, with Ferrari, F1’s most well-known and profitable staff, is field workplace stuff.
GO DEEPER
How Lewis Hamilton transcended System One stardom
Ferrari will seemingly enter the 2025 season with the strongest lineup in F1 as Hamilton races alongside Charles Leclerc, its younger star. As ‘superteam’ lineups go, in need of the implausible prospect of Hamilton teaming up with Max Verstappen, it’s arduous to think about any greater.
Whatever the end result, this shall be one of many defining tales in F1 for the following couple of years because the 39-year-old Hamilton bids to write down the newest — and doubtlessly ultimate — chapter of his glittering F1 profession in Ferrari’s well-known purple automobiles.
However why give up Mercedes on the eve of the brand new season, for a staff that hasn’t gained a championship in 15 years?
Since successful his first drivers’ championship with Mercedes (the second of his profession), Hamilton has been inextricably linked with the Silver Arrows. (Darren Heath/Getty Pictures)
A lack of religion in Mercedes?
Hamilton and Mercedes fashioned one of many biggest groups the game has ever seen.
Six of Hamilton’s seven world titles arrived between 2014 and 2020, his solely defeat in that stretch coming to teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016. Collectively Hamilton and Mercedes dominated F1, seeing off the specter of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, as soon as vaunted as the mixture that might put an finish to years of silver success by way of 2017-20.
Hamilton got here inside one appropriate determination by race management on the 2021 finale in Abu Dhabi from breaking Michael Schumacher’s report and successful an eighth world title, just for Verstappen to cross him on the ultimate lap restart and deny him the crown.
The controversy put Hamilton on a redemption arc. Fuelled by that heartache, 2022 turned the season he was because of reclaim what ought to’ve been his — just for Mercedes to construct a automobile that merely wasn’t as much as the job. Hamilton knew from the second he first drove the W13 it wasn’t adequate to win a title. It wasn’t even adequate to win a race, resigning him to the primary season of his F1 profession with out a single victory.
The struggles continued by way of final 12 months. Hamilton was typically pissed off by the constraints of his automobile, leaving him to endure one other winless season as Verstappen and Crimson Bull dominated proceedings. After the final race of the 12 months in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton summed up his temper as “not nice” and solid doubt on anybody catching Crimson Bull in 2024: “You’ll be able to just about guess the place they’re going to be subsequent 12 months.”
Hamilton’s fortunes have dipped since successful his seventh drivers’ championship got here in 2020. (Salih Zeki Fazlioglu/Anadolu Company by way of Getty Pictures)
Mercedes had already set about overhauling its automobile for 2024, having ditched its radical ‘zeropod’ idea halfway by way of final 12 months. Expectations have been being managed, however there was larger confidence from the staff that the automobile popping out of Brackley this 12 months wouldn’t carry the identical “spiteful” traits, to cite technical director James Allison, and that it could give Hamilton a greater probability of success.
Hamilton gained’t get an prolonged run within the Mercedes automobile till preseason testing begins in Bahrain later this month. A primary style will are available a shakedown at Silverstone when the automobile is launched on Feb. 14, and Hamilton may have pushed a mannequin within the simulator which may give a sign of what to anticipate. However there gained’t be a real understanding of the W15 automobile’s potential till he drives it for actual.
The choice to leap ship now suggests doubt in Mercedes’ skill to alter course and get again to the summit from which it as soon as regarded down on the F1 competitors. Had been Hamilton absolutely assured Mercedes was the place to be to win the eighth title he craves, he wouldn’t think about going elsewhere, notably given the emotional ties he has with the staff.
It’s going to give Hamilton and Mercedes a ‘lengthy goodbye’ by way of 2024, one ultimate 12 months collectively to attempt to succeed. However there can even be the awkwardness of the staff planning for the post-Hamilton period with out his involvement, progressively phasing him out of top-level conferences.
What Ferrari can provide
That is the massive query mark over the transfer. Mercedes has proven few indicators of with the ability to significantly problem for a championship prior to now two years — but neither has Ferrari.
The staff began the brand new set of F1 rules strongly in 2022, going toe-to-toe with Crimson Bull earlier than regressing over the race distances. Whereas it was the one staff apart from Crimson Bull to win a race final 12 months, courtesy of Carlos Sainz in Singapore, Ferrari’s important battle lay with Mercedes. It finally misplaced the race for second within the championship by three factors.
Like Mercedes, Ferrari has promised an overhaul of its automobile for this 12 months, which is able to function 95 p.c new parts. It’s going to lay the foundations for Hamilton’s first Ferrari F1 automobile in 2025, the final underneath the present rule set earlier than the design guidelines change considerably once more for 2026. That’s the 12 months most regard to supply the very best probability of ending Verstappen and Crimson Bull’s dominance.
Hamilton raced for now-Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur’s ART Grand Prix staff in his early days, they usually have remained in shut contact ever since.(System 1/System Motorsport Restricted by way of Getty Pictures)
Hamilton’s age additionally must be thought of. He’ll be 40 by the point he joins Ferrari, and though he stays in peak bodily situation and has expressed zero doubts over his long-term future, he’s not within the place to put money into a long-term venture like lots of his youthful counterparts.
It means there must be quick success as soon as Hamilton joins in 2025, however his pending arrival will solely assist construct momentum at Maranello. The staff is on a recruitment drive, and the lure of working with Hamilton can solely assist it appeal to high technical expertise who may assist its bid to win one other championship.
On a pure aggressive stage, going from Mercedes to Ferrari appears like a sideways transfer. However there’s one factor Ferrari provided Hamilton that Mercedes — and, frankly, no different staff — can’t.
The romance behind the transfer
Ferrari has all the time loved a legendary air in F1. It’s ingrained within the sport’s historical past. You consider F1, and also you consider Ferrari.
No staff carries such status and prowess. Even within the fallow durations with out a championship, like the present one stretching again to 2008, it has remained a staff nearly all of drivers dream of racing for someday. Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ staff principal, even acknowledged in 2019 that “most likely it’s in each driver’s head to drive at Ferrari someday.”
Or, as Vettel as soon as put it: “Everyone seems to be a Ferrari fan. Even when they are saying they’re not, they’re Ferrari followers.”
There’s a diploma of romance behind the transfer. Hamilton has owned Ferrari highway automobiles, and has a detailed friendship with John Elkann, Ferrari’s president. It’s going to additionally see Hamilton reunite with Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s staff principal. Hamilton raced for Vasseur’s ART Grand Prix staff when he was on the ranks resulting in F1, they usually have remained in shut contact ever since.
Hamilton has all the time held nice respect for the historical past of F1. He’s enthusiastic about its roots and its historical past, which means the burden of Ferrari is not going to be misplaced on him. It’s a staff that so lots of F1’s biggest names have pushed for at one stage of their careers.
To succeed with Ferrari is, in some ways, the final word story in F1 — and might be big for Hamilton’s personal legacy. For his ultimate hurrah in F1 to be with Ferrari, doubtlessly successful the record-breaking eighth world championship, would certainly be the final word option to finish his storied profession.
The choice? Ferrari fails to ship a automobile adequate for Hamilton to return to the highest. The strategic miscues and errors that occurred all too typically lately are a supply of frustration. There isn’t any eighth world championship.
Even in that state of affairs, Hamilton nonetheless will get to satisfy the dream so many F1 drivers maintain, and only a few truly notice, of racing for Ferrari. Seeing him in these well-known purple overalls will take some getting used to, nevertheless it’s now going to grow to be a actuality.
It’s price remembering when Hamilton left McLaren for Mercedes in 2013, when it had only a single race win to its title since returning to F1, the choice was extensively doubted. It proved to be a masterstroke. He’ll hope his judgment has confirmed appropriate as soon as once more.
(Lead picture of Lewis Hamilton: Dan Istitene, Bryn Lennon / Getty Pictures; Design: John Bradford/The Athletic)