Yes, as blasphemous as it sounds, your eyes and ears do not deceive you. After 11 years, six world championships, and 82 race wins with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton will indeed don the famous Scarlet Red of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, replacing Carlos Sainz alongside Charles Leclerc from 2025 in a multi-year deal.
The most successful F1 driver in history will join the most successful team in history in possibly the most mind-meltingly unexpected driver transfer ever.
But Lewis Hamilton, the man who, since the moment he stepped foot in the paddock in 2007, has been the bane of Ferrari’s life, will now…drive for the Prancing Horse? That’s like Cristiano Ronaldo signing for Barcelona and Virat Kohli moving to Chennai Super Kings. It doesn’t make sense! But for Hamilton, it makes all the sense in the world. To put it bluntly, he has absolutely nothing to lose.
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Hamilton is, presumably, in his final few years in F1. That, coupled with the fact that the veteran is coming off the back of two winless seasons, for a man with 103 career wins, surely has his heart yearning for greener (or should I say redder) pastures away from his beloved Mercedes team.
Despite his shocking move, the champion had this to say about his darling Silver Arrows: “I have had an amazing 11 years with this team, and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together. Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s the place where I grew up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.
However, he backed his decision, “But the time is right for me to take this step, and I’m excited to be 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 finish on a high together. I am 100 per cent committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
The seven-time world champion’s desire to add a record-breaking eighth to his collection is something he’s emphasised repeatedly since he cruelly lost it on the final lap that night in Abu Dhabi, and he seems to think Ferrari is his best bet at reclaiming the crown once and for all.
His close friend and Mercedes team principal and CEO, Toto Wolff had this to say regarding his star driver’s imminent departure, “In terms of a team-driver pairing, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has seen, and that’s something we can look back on with pride; Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history.
It seemed that Toto knew the writing was on the wall for Hamilton’s time with the Brackley-based outfit, “However, we knew our partnership would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come. We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
Ferrari had already shown interest in Hamilton’s abilities as early as 2019 when then-team principal Mattia Binnotto acknowledged him as a strong rival and someone they wouldn’t mind driving their cars.
Let’s not get it twisted; however, this is a legacy move. Best case scenario: should Hamilton’s move to Ferrari deliver the pair even a single championship, in the eyes of many, including even his harshest critics, the achievement will undoubtedly cement the Briton as the greatest F1 driver to have ever lived.
Winning an F1 championship is a ridiculously tough task on its own, but to do so with Ferrari is a completely different ball game. The prestige and, conversely, the pressures that come with driving for Ferrari are unlike any other, and very few have ever been able to handle them, hence why their champions are revered so highly. It’s why every driver dreams of one day lifting the world title with them, and it’s why some sacrifice their entire careers in pursuit of the coveted prize, as it rewards them with one thing above all else. Immortality. And that is exactly what Lewis wants.
It will also allow him to not only step out from the shadow of the legendary Michael Schumacher but to completely eclipse him and put to rest any debates regarding who the one true undisputed “Greatest Of All Time” really is; a title many feel the Brit already has a reasonable claim to.
The pair of seven-time champions actually share some very interesting statistics between them:
- Both won titles with two different teams (Benetton and Ferrari for Michael, McLaren and Mercedes for Lewis).
- Both were title protagonists in 11 seasons (including the titles they won).
- Both have been outscored by a teammate only three times (2010-12 vs Rosberg for Schumacher, 2011 vs Button, 2016 vs Rosberg and 2022 vs Russell for Hamilton)
However Michael’s best individual season performances have comparatively far more dominant than Lewis’ best.
Legacy mumbo jumbo aside, the insanely lucrative monetary incentive would be enough to convince even the most hard-nosed of businessmen. Undoubtedly, Ferrari will be paying the 39-year-old an exorbitant amount of money not only for his driving services but also his enormous global brand. As we speak, based on the initial rumours alone, Ferrari’s valuation reportedly went up a staggering seven billion dollars.
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Worst case scenario, it all goes horribly and implodes in usual Ferrari fashion, and Hamilton joins the back of a long line of fellow legends such as Prost, Alonso and Vettel, who all went chasing glory in Maranello only to come back empty-handed. It likely wouldn’t affect his legacy much even if he underperforms compared to Ferrari star boy Charles Leclerc, as Lewis has already proved whatever he needed to. A final title would only be the proverbial icing on an already blindingly shiny cake indeed.
Hamilton and Ferrari aside, this transfer will and probably has already undoubtedly kicked off what is affectionately known as “silly season”. This refers to the driver transfer market that tends to get a bit frantic and unpredictable when a top driver makes a high profile switch.
This means every driver whose contract expires at the end of 2024 (spoiler alert, that’s most of them) will be gunning for that second Mercedes seat but let’s take a quick look at the most likely candidates.
- Fernando Alonso: If he isn’t satisfied with Aston Martin’s progress in 2024, the veteran two-time world champion is already rumoured to have started putting out feelers.
- Carlos Sainz: With him now being out of a job for 2025, the Spaniard will be eager to prove his worth to his current and future employers (something he probably thought he did already, what with him being the only non-Red Bull Grand Prix winner in 2023).
- Alex Albon: The Williams driver had a very strong showing in 2023, regularly scoring points. That, paired with ex-Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles as his team principal, a Mercedes engine nestled right behind him and a strong friendship with the defacto Mercedes number 1 George Russell, could make for an easy move.
- Esteban Ocon: The French driver is managed by none other than Mercedes head honcho Toto Wolff and has proved himself as a race winner under pressure, coupled with what seems to be a toxic work environment brewing at Alpine, he could be aiming to replace Hamilton with haste.
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli: The 17-year-old Mercedes academy prodigy is set to make his F2 debut in 2024, and should he do well from the jump, we could very well see a Max Verstappen-esque fast-tracking to the top flight of open-wheel racing for 2025.
With Hamilton likely to end his illustrious career with his final stint at Ferrari, this unquestionably opens up a Pandora’s box of possibilities for who may fill the giant’s shoes at Mercedes. However, it’s not just the Mercedes seat that’ll likely be up for grabs. Unfortunately, if we were to sit here and go through all the permutations and combinations, the concept of sleep would sound about as foreign to you as the word “losing” does to Max Verstappen. It’s about to get really interesting, though. Stay tuned and watch this space for updates.
