The Formula 1 world was rocked on Thursday morning with the emergence of news that Lewis Hamilton is set to leave Mercedes to race for Ferrari from next year.
Hamilton signed a contract extension with Mercedes last year but the deal only takes him until the end of this season, when he will be free to join another team.
The 39-year-old won the last of his seven world titles in 2020 and has not contended for the Drivers’ Championship since 2021.
He will hope a move to Ferrari will improve his chances of clinching an unprecedented eighth world title and ending Max Verstappen’s streak of three in a row.
Hamilton’s ‘irrelevant’ conversations with Ferrari
Ferrari will become the third team Hamilton has raced for during his career after a previous six-year stint with McLaren, where he won his first title in 2008.
"I am excited about it, what a story" 🙌Martin Brundle on that news that Lewis Hamilton is set to join Ferrari in 2025 💬 pic.twitter.com/OnzmssIl8G
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) February 1, 2024
Six further titles followed for Hamilton across a seven-year span between 2014 and 2020 after he joined Mercedes in 2013, but he has not been in the equation to win an eighth since 2021, when he was pipped to the title in the final lap of final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
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Although there is still no official word on Hamilton’s future, with a formal announcement regarding his move expected at some point on Thursday, he did speak highly of Ferrari in an interview last year.
Hamilton maintained at the time that he had never received an official offer to race for the famous Italian team, but said he knew a lot of ‘good people’ who worked there.
He told Blick: “[There has] never [been an offer]. Okay, we’ve definitely had a few irrelevant conversations. I know a lot of good people there. But I never felt ready to move to Italy.”
It sounds like Hamilton might finally be ready to make that move.