Aftershock of Hamilton to Ferrari bombshell

Has Hamilton made the right decision? His Mercedes, pictured here in a Ferrari sandwich, was marginally better performing than the Ferraris in 2023. Photo / Don Kennedy

It is four weeks before the 2024 F1 season begins in Bahrain, but Lewis Hamilton’s announcement that he will join Ferrari in 2025 has shocked the F1 fraternity and come as a bombshell to his Mercedes team. Drivers changing teams as their contract has either expired or is about to is nothing new. But a driver announcing a change that won’t come into affect until a year later was bound to have a profound impact on other drivers and teams, let alone the team he renewed his contract with for two years just last August.

Hamilton to Ferrari rumours have surfaced from time to time and gathered momentum as Hamilton went winless in the last two seasons. But having stated at the end of last year after finishing third in the championship that he still had faith in his Mercedes team, something must have happened over the winter break to change his mind when Ferrari came knocking on his door.

Was it the prospect of winning an 8th drivers’ title he came oh so close to achieving in 2021 that is behind the change, given Ferrari has won more titles than any other team? Is it purely a financial move, with French publication Sportune speculating the deal could be worth $446 million over time? Or is it simply the romance of ending his F1 career with the most glamorous and famous team on the grid, and fulfill a childhood dream of driving for Ferrari that most drivers have?

In 2021 Hamilton reflected on what life at Ferrari might have meant.

“It’s definitely going to be crazy to think I never drove for Ferrari because for everyone that is a dream position to be in,” he said at the 2021 Italian GP.

“It was just never fully on the cards for me, and I’ll never know exactly fully why but I wish them all the best and I want to spend the next bit of my time stopping them from winning the championship.”

Last year Hamilton reflected on life at McLaren and now Mercedes.

Charles Leclerc (left) will be joined by Lewis Hamiton (right) at Ferrari in 2025. It seems Leclerc wasn't told Lewis was coming when he renewed his Ferrari contract. Photo / Don Kennedy

“I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought of ending my career anywhere else,” he told ESPN in May, about Mercedes.

“I started at McLaren, I’d like to think I’ll always be a part of the McLaren family, I started there when I was 13 years old, so I thought about what it would look like if I was at McLaren one day.”

He joined McLaren in 2007 after winning the F2 championship under the guidance of Fred Vasseur who is now the Ferrari boss. That first year was acrimonious, as he and teammate Fernando Alonso, who joined McLaren as a two-time world champion, were often at loggerheads. Alonso left after one season, while Hamilton stayed on to win the championship in 2008. He remained at McLaren until joining Mercedes in 2013 and that change proved to be a masterstroke, as he won six titles with Mercedes from 2014 onwards. During that time he admitted his thoughts wandered to what it would be like at Ferrari.

“I thought about and watched the Ferrari drivers on the screens at the track and of course, you wonder what it would be like to be in red… but then I go to my team, to Mercedes, and this is my home. I’m happy where I am. I haven’t signed a contract yet.”

When he did sign back in August last year, it was a two-year extension, with Mercedes paying him $50m per annum. But it now transpires that he had a let out clause for the second year, which he has exercised.

Were the seeds for Hamilton’s shocking move, inadvertently sown by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff? In March last year, Wolff was aware his team’s failure to provide Hamilton with a winning car again, could be problematic.

“If Lewis wants to win another championship he needs to make sure he has the car,” Wolff said. “And if we cannot demonstrate that we can give him a car in the next couple of years then he will need to look elsewhere. I don’t think he is doing it at this stage, but I will have no complaints if that happens in a year or two.”

But Wolff also said he was “absolutely confident” he would stay. “Lewis is at the stage of his career where we can trust each other, we have formed a great bond and we have no reason to doubt each other though it is a difficult spell.”

How deep was that trust? According to 1997 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, not as deep as Wolff may have thought.

“Inside Mercedes, there is something wrong,” Villeneuve suggests. “Lewis no longer believes in the engineers, he no longer believes in Toto. The team, after all the space and freedom they gave him, didn’t expect such a farewell. It was Mercedes that created Hamilton’s image. They believed he would remain an ambassador for life,” he told Cazzetta della Sport.

Asked who might replace Hamilton at Mercedes in 2025, Villeneuve suggested one name.

“Alonso would be great,” he said. “Also because you can’t put another young player with (George) Russell. Not at Mercedes. Toto will have the same ideas as him. He’s like Flavio Briatore [Alonso’s manager] he has his own drivers, first he places them around, and then if necessary he brings them into the team.”

Hamilton’s move has certainly started what is known as the “silly season” in F1 when driver changes are rumoured and speculation as to who goes where, begins. A vacancy at Mercedes could set in motion several driver changes, but as Wolff has now admitted, he was not shocked when Hamilton told him at a breakfast meeting of his future plans.

“I think what he has said is that he felt he needed a change and I can understand that,” Wolff said. “We’ve been together 12 years, I don’t know any other driver has ever been that long with a team.

“In terms of a team-driver pairing, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has seen, and that’s something we can look back on with pride,” he added. “Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history. However, we knew our partnership would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come.”

“We accept Lewis’ decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”

Hamilton has given an explanation for his move. “I have had an amazing 11 years with the team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together,” Hamilton’s statement read. “Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.”

“But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge. I will be grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together. I am 100 per cent committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.

“I feel incredibly fortunate, after achieving things with Mercedes that I could only dreamed of as a kid, that I now have the chance to fulfill another childhood dream. Driving in Ferrari red.”

The Ferrari driver who will lose his drive is Carlos Sainz, who may now move to Stake F1 (Sauber) in 2025, as Charles Leclerc just recently signed a deal that will see him in red for “several more seasons to come”. That could be until 2029, by which time he will be earning $50m. But will he be irked to get confirmation Hamilton is reportedly going to be paid $87m for 2025 alone?

Ferrari hasn’t won a drivers’ championship since Kimi Raikkonen won in 2007, or a Constructors’ title since 2008, so has Hamilton made the right decision? Former world champions Damon Hill and Jenson Button, think so.

“He’s got an instinct,” Hill said. “He’s got a racer’s instinct as to which way the wind blows. I think he may have actually pulled a blinder just like he did when he left McLaren and went to Mercedes. If Lewis genuinely thought that the eighth title was guaranteed or a good 50-50 chance of happening with Mercedes he would have stayed.”

Button noted: “We still have another year of Formula 1 to look forward to, but 2025-this is properly exciting.”

“For Lewis, this is a brave move and a lot of respect to him because he’s not just going to another team. He’s going to Ferrari, he’s going to where they speak Italian - a language he doesn’t know and a language Charles does know very well. This is a biggie,”

We know it’s a leap year, but given the timing of Hamilton’s announcement, it is almost as if F1 has skipped a whole year and everyone is now focused on 2025. Hamilton’s announcement has pushed news of F1 rejecting the Andretti bid to join the F1 grid, to the back pages, and also the launch of the new Haas and Sauber cars. It’s Hammertime, albeit one year early!