On Friday, seven-time Formula One World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton made a shocking announcement that he agreed to sign with Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 season. The longtime Mercedes driver has the most wins in F1 history and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most championships in history. Hamilton began his career at McLaren and won his first title in his sophomore 2008 season, and won the other six at Mercedes during their unbeatable run from 2014-20. Hamilton will join a Ferrari team that hasn’t won a constructors’ championship since 2008 or a drivers’ championship since 2007.
The 39-year-old Brit has been a long-established legend in the history of motorsport and is on the tail end of his illustrious career. He cites his decision to race for Ferrari in 2025 as a “childhood dream,” but there has also been speculation for the past couple of seasons that Hamilton is growing frustrated with the car’s performance since the 2022 regulation changes. Interestingly, Ferrari did worse than Mercedes this season, though only marginally. The two teams found themselves in a race for second place in the season’s final event, with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s second-place finish not enough to propel the team to second after Mercedes’ third- and ninth-point positions.
Ferrari has also had documented struggles with the regulation changes, though they solved them more quickly than Mercedes did in 2022. The Italian team’s main issue in this past season was questionable strategy calls weekend after weekend and just general unluckiness at the end of the season, like in Brazil and Las Vegas. Hamilton’s addition to the team may serve as a wake-up call to the strategists, but the dynamic between the two drivers remains to be seen.
In 2025, Hamilton will replace Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race this past season. The Spaniard joined Ferrari in 2021, earning two wins throughout his three completed seasons. While he never performed as well as his teammate Leclerc, he was not far enough behind for Ferrari to prioritize a single driver. In contract talks, however, Leclerc was indeed prioritized, as he recently signed an extension with the team for an unknown amount of years, and Sainz’s contract talks reportedly never panned out beyond a one-year deal that Sainz did not want to sign. There was a lot of speculation last year that Sainz would join the new Audi team for 2026, but that leaves him with the 2025 season to figure out where he can race competitively.
The opening at Mercedes for the 2025 season will undoubtedly set off a domino effect of driver moves that were absent this past season. The grid this year will be exactly the same as how last season ended, the only notable move being Daniel Ricciardo replacing Nyck De Vries at Alpha Tauri (now Visa Cash App RB). Mercedes could bring in Sainz for an extended period of time, but it’s unlikely that they would only sign him for a year if he wants to leave for Audi in 2026. Mercedes has a long list of reserve and Formula 2 drivers who deserve an F1 seat, but there are several drivers already in F1 who may be looking for a more competitive car. Alex Albon is one of them, who scored all but one of Williams’ 28 points in 2023. Stake F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas could make a return to Merc after successful seasons of constructors’ championships with them, or Schumacher could make his F1 return after serving as reserve driver for two seasons. These would leave openings in other teams that would be filled either by current drivers or those on the way up to F1.
However you spin it, Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has and will continue to make waves in the F1 world, with the “silly season” of 2025 driver moves beginning earlier than usual. February began a series of car launches for the 2024 season, and the first Grand Prix starts at the end of the month. It remains to be seen whether Red Bull and Max Verstappen will continue their dominance through 2024 or if a new team will emerge to challenge their incredible run.
