Drumil Modi, Pune
Lewis Hamilton will make his Ferrari debut in the 2025 Formula One season on a multiyear contract, the Italian team confirmed on Thursday.
For the 2024 season Hamilton, a seven-time world champion and a record winner of 103 races, will continue driving for Mercedes.
Hamilton had signed a two-year contract with Mercedes last year with a clause of an option to walk away from the team after one season.
In an official statement, Hamilton said how this has been one of the hardest decisions he ever had to make, he looks forward to his future with a new team and new challenges and when it comes to his 2024 season at Mercedes he hopes to deliver the best he can for the team that taught him friendship and leadership. He hopes to finish on a high with Mercedes and give the best possible performance for his last year with the Silver Arrows.
Ferrari is known as the most successful team in the history of F1 and it is the only team to have competed in every season of Formula 1 but has not won the drivers championship since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
Rumours of Hamilton joining Ferrari have been around for years, but on Thursday the news appeared to come out of the blue, the sources say that even Mercedes was caught off guard by the news, which is evident in the fact that Mercedes does not have a replacement driver ready.
John Elkann, the Ferrari Chairman has long been known to be an admirer of Hamilton’s driving skill and wanted the team to have a capable driver along with Charles Leclerc going forward.
This also explains why Leclerc recently got a contract renewal until the 2026 season and Sainz did not.
Leclerc had ties with Ferrari even before he joined Formula 1, he has a reputation for outperforming everyone on qualifying day but his ability to win a championship has been a topic of discussion, especially due to his high-profile mistakes when asked to perform under pressure.