Marciello will bring the curtain down on a six-season stint as a factory driver with Mercedes in this weekend’s fifth edition of the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, having first joined the German manufacturer's works roster in 2018.
The Italian will pay tribute to Mercedes by sporting a special black-and-silver helmet livery on the Guia Circuit, which will carry the marque’s famous Three-Pointed Star symbol and pictures of some of his race-winning cars.
Marciello has also inscribed the word ‘Danke’ - German for ‘thank you’ - on top of his helmet along with the names of all the teams he has raced with during his time with Mercedes.
"I am touched,” said Marciello after his farewell was announced during Mercedes' end-of-season 'Champions United' event.
“As a farewell present I was given the Spa-winning car I drove as a model car and AMG made a cool, very emotional film for me.
“We all had another great evening together. I'm very grateful to Mercedes-AMG because without them I wouldn't be here now.”
The news of Marciello’s exit from Mercedes comes ahead of the expected announcement about him joining rival luxury car marque BMW to drive the M Hybrid V8 in the World Endurance Championship and/or the IMSA SportsCar Championship next year.
The 28-year-old is understood to have initially been joining Lamborghini for its own top-level prototype project with a Ligier-based LMDH car, before BMW stepped in to lure him away for its expanded 2024 programme.
BMW has already been racing in IMSA’s GTP class this year with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and will take its Dallara LMP2-based LMDh contender to WEC next year in a programme run in association with WRT.
Marciello will join BMW after an illustrious GT career that has seen him take multiple GT World Challenge Europe titles, the 2022 GT Masters title along with outright honours at the Spa 24 Hours in 2022 and in the 2019 FIA GT World Cup.
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He made his debut in a prototype in the Daytona 24 Hours with a High Class Racing ORECA in the LMP2 class.
His existing contract with Mercedes was always due to expire at the end of the 2023 season, Marciello having signed a three-year deal covering the 2021 to 2023 campaigns.
