For years, some Formula One fans have wondered what 7-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton would look like in a Ferrari red driver's suit, and now it looks like their imaginations will become a reality.
Multiple sources are reporting that Hamilton plans to leave Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1, his home since 2013, to race for Scuderia Ferrari beginning in 2025. Hamilton will reportedly replace Carlos Sainz and team with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Official confirmation of Hamilton's shocking move will come by the end of this week.
At 39 years of age, Hamilton's F1 racing career is nearing its checkered flag. The sport's winningest driver, Hamilton has amassed an incredible 103 Grand Prix victories in a career that began with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Racing in 2007. While he has driven to tremendous success in his career, the last two years have been seasons of frustration for the British driver with zero victories in 2022 and 2023 and finishes of Sixth and Third in the World Drivers' Championship, respectively.
While Hamilton waited until late in the 2023 season to extend his contract with Mercedes-AMG, he expressed optimism that the Silver Arrows team would overcome its struggles and return to the top of the F1 world.
"I do have faith that we will get there," Hamilton told Motorsport.com. "We have been here before as a team, and while we have more and more new people, we still have great values, I see great focus within everyone. I think for this year [2023] they thought the fundamentals were good and we just have to go here and it's not the case. That's why I was frustrated in February, because they hadn't made the changes I'd asked (for). But with the changes we are making, I hope I was, I hope we are right and, yeah, but I guess we have no idea what the Red Bulls are going to do."
The contract extension was for a reported two years, but it now seems that the second year was a driver's option that Hamilton will exercise to move to Ferrari in '25. With preseason testing set to begin in late February and the F1 season kicking off in Bahrain on March 2, it's unclear what might have changed Hamilton's mind regarding Mercedes-AMG's chances for success.
So far, Mercedes has not commented on the Hamilton's leaving the team.
Ferrari last captured the World Driver's Championship in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen. Its last Constructor's Championship came in 2008 and it finished just three points behind Mercedes-AMG in last year's championship while racing to second in 2022. Is the team poised to return both Hamilton and it to F1 supremacy? It looks like Hamilton may stake the remainder of his brilliant career on it.
