Lewis Hamilton Confirms Move to Ferrari From Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton move to Ferrari from Mercedes for the 2025 season has been confirmed.
The upcoming Formula 1 season got a major injection of momentum on football’s transfer deadline day when it was widely reported that Hamilton had agreed terms to make the move to the famous Italian team.

“I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I'm so proud of what we have achieved together," Hamilton said. "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 forever 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% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff paid tribute to the departing Hamilton.

“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," Wolff said. "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’s 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."

It is a switch both Hamilton and Ferrari will hope revives their fortunes.

Hamilton has not won a race since taking the chequered flag at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix in 2021.

His Mercedes team have largely been well off the pace set by current world champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
It has been a similar story for Ferrari, who won only once in 2023 when Carlos Sainz landed the Singapore Grand Prix.

The news of Hamilton’s link-up with Ferrari put Sainz’s place with the team in the spotlight, given his team-mate Charles Leclerc recently signed a long-term deal with the Scuderia.

And Sainz took to social media on Thursday evening to confirm his time with Ferrari would come to an end at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

“Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” Sainz said. “We still have a long season ahead of us and, like always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the tifosi all around the world.
“News about my future will be announced in due course."

Hamilton has seven world titles to his name, six of which came with Mercedes, and is eager to break out of the tie he is currently in with Michael Schumacher.

He will hope a move to Ferrari will set him on the road to that goal, and help him add to his 103 race wins.

Going forward, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has backed George Russell to become a "leader" and the main man for the team after Lewis Hamilton moves to Ferrari for the 2025 season. The announcement that Hamilton would join Ferrari next year sent shockwaves around the sport but Wolff is confident that fellow Englishman Russell can be the face of Mercedes in the near future.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said he is confident that George Russell can become a "leader" after Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari for the 2025 season.

Last week's announcement that Hamilton will join Ferrari at the end of the upcoming season sent shockwaves around the sport.

The seven-time world champion has won six of his driver's titles at Mercedes after joining the team from McLaren in 2013.

Although Wolff recently said Hamilton's decision was "not a surprise", he has backed fellow Englishman Russell to step up as a leader.

"With all the Lewis discussion, something that has not been talked about enough is George," Wolff said, per Sky Sports.
"George has the potential to be the next lead driver in the team. He is of the generation of Lando [Norris] and [Charles] Leclerc and some of the others.

"I couldn't wish for a new team leader when Lewis leaves, no doubt about that."
Russell enjoyed an impressive debut campaign with Mercedes during the 2022 season and finished above Hamilton in the drivers' standings.

The 25-year-old also secured Mercedes' first win over the previous two years when he secured victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

However, Russell experienced a tougher time last season where he finished eighth in the drivers' standings and 59 points behind Hamilton.

Although Red Bull and three-time world champions Max Verstappen has enjoyed a spell of dominance in the sport, Wolff believes that Mercedes can secure a second driver and once again compete for the championship.

"We have such a solid foundation, such a quick, talented and intelligent guy in the car that we just need to take the right choice for the second driver, and that's not something I want to be rushed in," Wolff added.

"I guess that a few contracts have been signed a few weeks ago that we would have looked at that could have been interesting but timing here beat us a bit."

Mercedes went through a similar experience when Nico Rosberg announced a shock retirement from the sport after winning the 2016 title.

Valtteri Bottas came in as Rosberg's replacement and enjoyed five successful years with the team, and Wolff says Mercedes will embrace the challenge of change.

"In a way, I always like change because change provides you with opportunity," Wolff said.

"In the same way we embraced the Nico situation, and that was equally like from one moment to the other, unexpected,

I'm really looking forward to taking the right decisions with the team together with my colleagues on who's going to be in the seat next year.

"Maybe it's a chance to do something bold."