Lewis Hamilton will depart Mercedes after the 2024 Formula 1 season and make the switch to Ferrari.
Hamilton, who began racing for Mercedes in 2013 after leaving McLaren, signed a new two-year deal with Mercedes last August to keep him with the team through the 2025 F1 season. However, the 39-year-old has activated a release option in the contract which will allow him to leave at the end of the 2024 season.
The news comes as a major shock in the F1 landscape as there was an expectancy that the seven-time world champion would finish his racing career with Mercedes, but now that will no longer be the case.
Hamilton spoke on his decision to exit Mercedes after the 2024 season, saying: "I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I'm so proud of what we have achieved together. But the time is right for me to take this step and I'm excited to be taking on a new challenge."
He went on to add: "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."
Mercedes Team Principal and CEO, Toto Wolff, touched on Hamilton's decision, stating: "We accept Lewis's decision to seek a fresh challenge. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024."
Wolff added: "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; Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history."
Ferrari announced the news on Thursday evening, declaring that Hamilton will join on a multi-year contract from the 2025 season.
Rumours of Hamilton representing Ferrari have come up in the past but those were often dismissed and just thought of as paper talk. Ferrari President, John Elkann, has a friendship with Hamilton and the two held conversations in 2019 about the Brit potentially racing with Ferrari in the future.
A meeting led by Wolff as well as the team Technical Director of Mercedes, James Allison, was held on Thursday afternoon in Brackley to inform the team's staff of Hamilton's decision.
Hamilton will race alongside Charles Leclerc for Ferrari in 2025 as the Monegasque driver recently signed a new extension deal to remain with the team beyond the 2024 season.
Leclerc's current teammate at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, is out of contract with the team at the end of the 2024 season and was reported to be in contract negotiations over an extension. However, negotiations dragged on and Elkann was made aware of the possibility of Hamilton joining for the 2025 campaign, so attention switched to acquiring the Brit.
Leclerc addressed the possibility of racing alongside Hamilton last year, stating: "Lewis is such an incredible driver, has achieved so much in the sport. So, I think anybody on the grid will love to have Lewis as a team-mate, as everybody will learn a lot from him."
The exit of Hamilton from Mercedes after the upcoming season leaves the team having to find a replacement driver to partner with George Russell, who recently extended his stay with the team until the end of the 2025 campaign.
Sainz could be an option for Mercedes as he will be available after the 2024 season whilst Red Bull's Sergio Perez is also out of contract after the upcoming campaign. Fernando Alonso is another driver that will be available in 2025 as his deal with Aston Martin will be up by then.
Hamilton's decision to switch to Ferrari will come with the intent of dominating F1 again and ending Red Bull and Max Verstappen's dominance. After Hamilton won his seventh and most recent world title in 2020, Verstappen has gone on to win the last three championships.
Hamilton controversially finished runner-up in 2021 after the final lap in the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi saw Verstappen be allowed to overtake the Brit and go on to win the race and subsequently the world title.
Red Bull and Verstappen have dominated the last two seasons with teams finding it difficult to close the gap on them. The past two campaigns are the only occasions in Hamilton's F1 career where he failed to pick up a single win in a season.
Hamilton is currently tied with former Ferrari driver and F1 icon, Michael Schumacher, on seven world championships. Winning a record-breaking eighth world title with Ferrari would be a special moment for Hamilton as he would be making history whilst representing what many motorsports fans class as the most iconic racing team.
Before Hamilton can think about his aspirations of racing with Ferrari, he will be focusing on Mercedes' plans for the upcoming F1 season, which begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 2nd March.
