Lewis Hamilton’s highly unexpected switch to Ferrari has ensured that, on transfer deadline day, the biggest deal of all was done in Formula One not football. Never one to shy away from a challenge, the seven-time world champion is making his boldest ever move in the last roll of the dice in his career.
This is a breathtaking and exhilarating deal. In opting to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025 Hamilton has made the most significant team switch of the century. Having signed a new deal with Mercedes in August last year, and after years of repeatedly denying rumours of a move to Ferrari, the 39-year-old has declared his intent to finish his career with the most famous, most storied and most successful team in F1 history.
That it was a shock is undeniable given that as recently as last season Hamilton was insistent he was happy and confident at Mercedes, with whom he has won six of his seven titles, and indicating he would see out his career with the team. The British driver’s decision is far from unprecedented, though, as there are parallels from his past that are impossible to ignore.
In late 2012, having won his first title with McLaren in 2008, he announced he would be leaving the team to join Mercedes in 2013. It was a decision that caused similar consternation and was questioned and derided. McLaren were a proven championship winning squad while Mercedes, as relative newcomers, were entrenched in the midfield.
This was career suicide, opined some, yet only a year later Hamilton delivered the title and five more followed as the team took eight consecutive constructors’ championships. Hamilton had joined them based on what the team principal, Ross Brawn, and the former world champion Niki Lauda had presented of the promise in Mercedes, especially for the new regulations in 2014. Hamilton liked what he saw and went with it, trusting his instincts.
They proved right to extraordinary effect and it is impossible not to imagine similar reasoning is behind this move. Of course, there is an element of romanticism in his decision. Everyone wants to drive for the Scuderia – to wield the scarlet cars of the prancing horse is to be part of F1 history in the only team to have competed in every world championship since it began in 1950. To be at the heart of the maelstrom and the magic that makes Ferrari the most famous marque in the world.
Nonetheless, it is likely that what drove Hamilton more than anything was a belief that it is Ferrari rather than Mercedes who present the best chance of him winning an eighth title. He knows the team principal, Fred Vasseur, well having raced for him in GP3 and F2 and he and Ferrari must have presented Hamilton with enough convincing evidence that they are able to deliver the machinery he craves, if not in 2025 then with the major regulation change of 2026.
This will not simply be a case of wanting to have added Ferrari to his CV before he bows out. Hamilton must believe he can win a title with the team. Which is indicative, too, of how his confidence in Mercedes has fallen away in the last two seasons when they have delivered an uncompetitive car and indeed that, despite protestations to the contrary, he does not believe they are best placed to be the team to catch Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
It is a task he knows should not be underestimated. Ferrari have not won a drivers’ title since Kimi Räikkönen took the championship in 2007, narrowly beating Hamilton in his explosive debut season.
The longest drought the Scuderia has suffered is a challenge that has defeated the best. In the past 15 years two multiple world champions, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, joined Ferrari with visions of making glory in scarlet the pinnacle of their careers. Both ended disillusioned and titleless.
Hamilton, like them, will have to adapt to a new team, having been comfortable building Mercedes around him for 12 seasons. It is an immense task and one he must do with alacrity. The team have persistently underperformed of late. Beaten by Mercedes last season, they have been operationally and tactically found wanting, sometimes flailing under pressure, albeit with some improvement when Vasseur took over last season.
The pressure is another factor he will have considered and must embrace. Hamilton is used to scrutiny, entering his 17th season in the sport, but it will now be of a different order altogether. The expectations of Ferrari supporters, the tifosi, demanding at the best of the times, will be off the scale with a driver of his calibre and experience.
Yet he knows what it means to them when they win and how they take drivers to their hearts. Nigel Mansell won only three races for Ferrari in two seasons but they admired his determination and tenacity, dubbing him Il Leone – The Lion. Imagine how they will react should Hamilton finally deliver the championship.
For Ferrari it is an immense coup. To pull it off is a huge statement of intent from them. They will have the best driver pairing on the grid with Charles Leclerc, the very quick young gun, alongside Hamilton, who has great experience. If building toward 2026 is the plan, no driver can bring more to the table or the garage.
At Mercedes, his absence will be sorely felt. The team principal, Toto Wolff, has become very close friends with Hamilton and their relationship was always seen as one of the central factors in his loyalty to the team. Wolff will understandably be wounded and his team must now begin the very tricky task of replacing a driver who is all but irreplaceable and there are no candidates even close to Hamilton’s skill and stature. He will have left a hole in the heart of the team.
Now Hamilton must forge a similar relationship at Maranello after an audacious, invigorating decision that has to be admired. Hamilton has nothing left to prove, already standing as the most successful F1 driver of all time. But if he delivers championship success at Ferrari, the deal done on transfer deadline day in 2024 will be remembered as the moment he opened the final chapter of what will stand as the greatest legacy in F1.
