Throughout the day, rumors that British driver Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) could move to Ferrari became more and more insistent. Official confirmation is still pending, but staff at the Mercedes factory in Brackley (UK) met on Thursday afternoon. They were told that the transfer was real and much more than just a rumor.
Lewis Hamilton will be leaving the Mercedes team after this season and join Scuderia Ferrari in 2025. He will team up with Charles Leclerc, who recently extended his contract at Maranello. Spaniard Carlos Sainz, whose Ferrari contract expires at the end of 2024, should now be looking for a new team.
It is not yet clear who will take over Hamilton’s cockpit at Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton (39) extended his contract until the end of 2025 with Mercedes - where he has been racing since 2013 - last August, after several months of rumors reporting contacts between Ferrari and the British driver. However, he would have a release clause allowing him to leave the team led by Austrian Toto Wolff at the end of the 2024 season.
The announcement of Hamilton’s possible departure to the Scuderia in 2025 was made by the Italian website Formu1a.uno. Other media such as L’Equipe, the BBC and Gazzetta dello Sport confirmed that the two parties were in discussions and could be on the verge of reaching an agreement.
British channel Sky Sports has no doubts and has stated that Hamilton will indeed join Ferrari in 2025 to replace Carlos Sainz Jr.
Lewis Hamilton has only driven Mercedes engines throughout his F1 career. From 2007 to 2012, he drove for McLaren-Mercedes, then he joined the Mercedes team. He celebrated 6 world championship titles with Mercedes and one with McLaren.
RTL’s Formula 1 expert Dominique Riefstahl, who worked with Lewis Hamilton for many years, was surprised by this change: “It’s extremely unexpected. Whether he’s fulfilling a childhood dream of driving in red, or if he has lost confidence in Mercedes, only he knows. It will also be interesting to see which technicians will follow him. I am not expecting to see his race engineer, Bono, follow him, but as Lewis has already proven in the past, with him everything is possible.”
