It has been announced that seven-time world champion, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team driver, Lewis Hamilton, will depart his current team of 11 years and will move to the Ferrari team in 2025 on a multi-year contract.
Hamilton finished third in the driver’s championship standings in 2023. Hamilton last won the F1 driver’s championship in 2020 and has been out-raced by Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, who is 13 years Hamilton’s junior. Hamilton has also expressed his dissatisfaction with the form of the Mercedes F1 car over the past two seasons.
“I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together,” the 39-year-old British driver said in a statement.
The move came as a shock to the world of Formula 1, as Hamilton had only recently signed a two-year contract with Mercedes Benz and was expected to see out the rest of his career with the team that has won him six of his seven world championships. However, it seems he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with his close friend and one-time team boss Fred Vasseur, who now leads the Ferrari F1 team.
This also means that Carlos Sainz is currently without an F1 seat for next year’s season – whilst fellow Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc renewed his contract with the team just the other day, and will drive for them beyond the 2024 season.
“I’m very pleased to know that I will be wearing the Scuderia Ferrari race suit for several more seasons to come,” Leclerc said when his re-signing was announced by the Ferrari team.
The 2024 Formula 1 season will start in Bahrain on the 29th of February. It will take place on a Saturday night. There will be 24 races in 2024 – the most a Formula 1 season has ever held before. The Saudi Arabian GP will also be held on a Saturday night, in back-to-back-racing weekends, on the 9th of March 2024.
The Chinese GP will also reappear on the calendar for the first time since 2019 – it had been cancelled for four consecutive years due to the country’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Will this driver shake-up make F1 much more exciting or unpredictable in 2025? Only time will tell.
Image accreditation: Automotive Rhythms on Flickr
