Lewis Hamilton will drive for Ferrari from 2025 in a shock turn of events ahead of the start of the new season after deciding to end his contract with Mercedes a year early.
Last summer, after long negotiations, Hamilton signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes that guarantees him a driver’s seat in the team for 2024 and 2025, but either Ferrari managed to convince Hamilton that they were a better destination for a return to winning ways, or Hamilton simply had the desire to drive for Ferrari before the end of his career.
The details of Hamilton’s current contract with Mercedes for 2024 and 2025 are not known, but it appears that a second season of the contract is an ‘option’ and that Hamilton has decided to activate a clause that allows him to move to another team.
The news started this morning from the Italian and British media and spread with incredible speed, and during the day more and more details leaked out, such as an emergency meeting at the Mercedes headquarters in Brackley where employees were informed about the outcome of the event.
Hamilton has said many times during his career that he wants to finish his F1 journey with Mercedes and be their lifelong ambassador like Stirling Moss, but the call of the longest-running and most successful team in Formula 1 history was too strong.
It will be interesting to see how Hamilton, who will turn 40 in 2025, will manage in Ferrari against Leclerc, who will then have six seasons of experience in Ferrari and who is one of the greatest talents of the new generation of drivers.
The move will see Hamilton reunite with Frederic Vasseur, the current Ferrari F1 team boss, who was the ART Grand Prix team boss in the GP2 series with which Hamilton won the championship in 2006 ahead of his entry into Formula 1 in 2007.
The Brit drove all races in Formula 1 (332) with a Mercedes engine, of which 110 in McLaren and 222 in Mercedes, and won seven titles, 103 victories, 104 pole positions and 197 podiums.
Who will be Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes?
One of the more interesting questions after Hamilton’s signing for Ferrari is which driver will replace him and become George Russell’s new teammate.
Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti, the second-placed driver of the 2023 F2 Championship who drove a Mercedes car in the first practice sessions in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year, is one of the possibilities, but his inexperience is certainly the biggest minus.
Fernando Alonso is also mentioned in the context of his former teammate’s deputy, which would potentially be an opportunity for Alonso to win a third championship if Mercedes is competitive.
One of the solutions is Sainz, who is potentially free from 2025, and Albon is also one of the attractive options since he is also free from 2025.
Where will Carlos Sainz end up?
Ferrari confirmed exactly a week ago that they had signed a new contract with Leclerc that guarantees him to stay at Ferrari until at least the end of 2026, but the absence of a similar announcement with Sainz was unusual as Sainz also emphasized that he wanted to resolve the question of his future before the start of the new season .
Sainz will drive his fourth season at Ferrari this year, but with this turn of events, he will have to look for a new team for 2025, which he has probably been working on for a long time. One option is Audi, entering the sport in 2026 by buying Sauber, so Sainz could join the team a year before their official arrival.
