- Lewis Hamilton will reportedly earn £85million every year if he joins Ferrari
- The Scuderia were prepared to offer him £40 million in May but were unable to land him
- Certainties about the competitiveness of the car are also a convincing factor for him
Lewis Hamilton will reportedly rake in £85million a year from Ferrari when he joins in 2025.
Hamilton surprised the sports world on Thursday when the news broke that he would exchange Mercedes – the team he has been a part of for eleven seasons – for the Italian superpowers.
The 39-year-old will sign a multi-year contract with the aim of regaining the Drivers’ World Championship from Max Verstappen – and setting a new record of eight title victories.
His financial package, supplemented with salary, sponsors, image rights, bonuses and more, will reach £85 million, according to the Italian website. formula1a.uno.
That’s not far off double his £50 million compensation at Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton will earn £85 million a year at Ferrari, according to an Italian F1 website
Hamilton shocked the world when news broke that he would be leaving Mercedes, with whom he has won six world drivers’ championships, for the Scuderia
It is also more than double the £40 million Ferrari wanted to offer him in May – a story exclusively broken by Mail Sport and vehemently denied at the time.
According to the formu1a.uno report, Hamilton was influenced not only by the money involved, but also by the assurance of the car’s competitiveness.
This included technical guarantees, for example around the car’s new engine, which will be designed for the circuit in Maranello from the 2026 season.
The Scuderia suffered from an unreliable engine in the 2023 season, which meant that even if they had raw pace, they could not compete with Red Bull in the long term.
The new engine rules, due in 2026, will allow teams a fresh start – and Hamilton will hope this can at least bring him another title.
Hamilton had previously expressed his desire to remain at Mercedes, where he has won six of his seven individual titles and cemented his place as one of the sport’s very best.
However, the Silver Arrows have been weak in the wake of Red Bull’s recent dominance and Hamilton finished last season with less than half of Verstappen’s points.
Britain’s greatest driver will team up with Charles Leclerc, while Carlos Sainz will make way for him.
Technical guarantees – including on their 2026 engine – were a decisive factor in his decision to participate
Frederic Vasseur, Hamilton’s long-time mentor, is Ferrari’s team boss and that was also a convincing factor
Another factor that was reportedly convincing for Hamilton is the presence of his former mentor Frederic Vasseur at Ferrari.
The Ferrari team boss has a special bond with Hamilton, so it will come as no surprise that the Brit would like to work with the Frenchman again.
Hamilton won the Formula Three and GP2 (now Formula Two) championships with Vasseur’s ART team in 2005 and 2006 before making a spectacular Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2007.
“I speak to him at every GP, he raced for me 20 years ago and we are still close,” Vasseur, who joined Ferrari in January 2023, told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport last season.
‘Obviously when they (the media) see us together in the paddock there is a lot of fuss, but the relationship has remained.
“I don’t want to compare him to our drivers, that wouldn’t make sense.”
There has clearly been a comparison between Hamilton and Sainz, and it is the Englishman who has come out on top.
Carlos Sainz will make way for Hamilton, who is starting his twelfth season at Mercedes for the first time
Driving for Ferrari has been an obsession in Hamilton’s mind throughout his career.
There has been flirting between the two parties for some time, and he has driven red cars off the forecourt of their Beverly Hills dealership and visited the Maranello factory.
£85 million is a huge sum of money, but unique in the pantheon of greats is the way Hamilton wants to end his glittering career.