Lewis Hamilton’s sensational switch to Ferrari in 2025 has been confirmed.
Reports emerged on Thursday morning about the impending transfer of the seven-time world champion. Hamilton would start working at Mercedes this year before making the jump to his new team.
The news confirms Mail Sport’s world scoop from last May that Ferrari was in talks with Hamilton and prepared to offer him a king’s ransom of £40 million to join.
In what is being billed as the biggest move in the sport since Hamilton’s McLaren swapped for Mercedes in 2013, the 39-year-old will make a last-ditch bid to win his eighth world title, eclipsing Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.
Ferrari confirmed the news on Thursday afternoon, with Hamilton, who is set to part ways with his £50million-a-year contract at Mercedes, being partnered by Charles Leclerc, which is also likely to end Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari career.
It has been confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will drive for Ferrari from 2025
The move ends his 13-year stay at Mercedes, where he won six world titles
Hamilton will drive alongside Charles Leclerc (left), who has previously said Hamilton would be an ideal teammate
Hamilton currently earns £50million a year at Mercedes, where he has won six of his seven world championships and has previously expressed a desire to stay in the sport for the remainder of his time.
But the car has struggled in recent years, with Hamilton not winning a race since controversially losing the world title to Max Verstappen on the final lap of the final race of the 2021 season.
Mercedes confirmed that Hamilton has activated a release option in his contract, which was signed last year.
Team boss Toto Wolff recently said the team’s latest build ‘feels like a car for the first time in two years’, but the supposed improvements have come too little too late and they will lose their key man after this year.
Hamilton will replace Carlos Sainz at the team, who leaves four years after joining from McLaren
The news was confirmed on Wednesday evening in a statement that Mercedes published on the company website
Hamilton’s move will also see him reunited with his old friend Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s new team boss.
The 55-year-old has a special bond with Hamilton, so it will come as no surprise that the Brit would be keen 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.’
Hamilton won six of his seven world titles with Mercedes and had expressed his desire to end his career with the team
His partnership with Leclerc has added to the excitement surrounding the move, with the Monaco-born driver previously saying Hamilton would be the ideal teammate.
Leclerc, himself dubbed a future world champion, is 13 years younger than Hamilton and has won five races in his career, securing 30 podium finishes and 15 pole positions in that time.
Hamilton has now won 103 races out of 332 in his career, resulting in seven world titles – most of them together with Schumacher.
He came closest to winning his eighth title in 2021, leading on the final lap of the final race before being overtaken, but eventual champion and arch-rival Max Verstappen missed out on the championship.
However, the move to Ferrari will provide another opportunity to avoid Schumacher at the top of the standings, with Ferrari seemingly further down the queue when it comes to competing with Red Bull.
Speaking about his departure, Hamilton said: “I have had eleven great years with this team and I am so proud of what we have achieved together. Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s a place where I grew up, so the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. But for me the time has come to take this step and I am looking forward to 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 end together on a high.” I am 100% committed to delivering the best possible performance this season and making my final year with the Silver Arrows one to remember.”
Hamilton said he will be ‘forever grateful’ for his time at Mercedes but admitted ‘the time is right’ to move on
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff added that he knew that ‘at some point our cooperation would come to a natural end’
Team principal Toto Wolff added: ‘In terms of the combination of team and driver, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has ever seen, and that is something we can look back on with pride; Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes’ motorsport history. However, we knew that at some point our collaboration would naturally end, and that day has now arrived.
“We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a new challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to think about.” But for now we have one more season to go and we are focusing on racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
Ferrari has long been an admirer of Hamilton and held talks with him to join the team in May last year
Meanwhile, F1 experts have offered a more considered take on the huge news.
Martin Brundle said: “I’m so looking forward to this. We’ve been asking him about it for years and he seemed glued to Merc for life and was always reluctant to move. Hamilton and Leclerc in scarlet red, that’s a story.’
David Croft added: ‘Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari! Always thought it would happen one day, but it will happen eventually and it seems as early as 2025.
“A seismic move, just like when Lewis joined Mercedes, and just like then I don’t see the negative sides. But wow, undoubtedly the biggest transfer on transfer deadline day!’
Former driver Karun Chandhok explained that the romance of one last world title with Ferrari was too good to turn down.
‘I tried to understand: ‘Where is the logic in a Ferrari move?’ Maybe there isn’t… Lewis has more money than he could ever spend, hasn’t won a race in more than two years, and maybe his heart yearned for a new challenge.
‘Winning an 8th title in a Ferrari would be an incredible legacy!’