For 2 years, Lewis Hamilton has seen purple within the cockpit of his Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 automobiles. A part of that was a purple mist, Hamilton undoubtedly indignant about Mercedes getting its automotive idea so badly flawed when groups needed to develop new automobiles for the 2022 Method 1 season. And a part of that was from watching the scarlet Ferraris go his group by. The Italian outfit beat Mercedes to second place within the Producer’s Championship in 2022, and though Mercedes beat Ferrari by 3 factors in 2023, Mercedes has taken one pole place and gained a single race previously two years, Ferrari has began on pole 19 occasions and gained 5 races. Hamilton signed one other two-year contract with Mercedes final yr, however the contract included an escape clause. So Hamilton, who’s 39, has determined to place the clause to make use of.
Hamilton will associate with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, the Monegasque driver having signed one other long-term contract final yr that retains him at Ferrari till the top of 2026.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 group introduced the lack of Sir Lewis this afternoon. This is the group assertion:
The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Staff and Lewis Hamilton will half methods on the finish of the 2024 season. Lewis has activated a launch possibility within the contract introduced final August and this season will subsequently be his final driving for the Silver Arrows.
The information brings an finish to what’s presently a 17-year lengthy relationship in F1 with Mercedes-Benz and an 11-year lengthy partnership with the works group.
Toto Wolff, Staff Principal & CEO, commented:
Lewis Hamilton added:
“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 a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. 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% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
There have been rumors even earlier than Leclerc signed with Ferrari about holdups with a contract for his teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr. All Ferrari group principal Cedric Vasseur would say publicly is that all the pieces can be taken care of. Racer experiences that in these Sainz discussions, Ferrari firm Chairman John Elkann heard there was an opportunity to get Hamilton. Nicely, all the pieces’s definitely been taken care of, to Elkann and Vasseur’s satisfaction and everybody else’s shock.
Hamilton will restart a working relationship with Vasseur, who based the ART Grand Prix group that Hamilton gained the Method 3 title with in 2005 and the GP2 title with in 2006. He additionally will get to Ferrari one yr earlier than the laws change once more, in 2026. It is doable an earlier Mercedes transfer having to do with a earlier regulation change foreshadowed this one. Loic Serra joined Mercedes F1 in 2010 and left in 2023, spending his closing 5 years in Brackley because the group’s efficiency director. When Mercedes started growing the “zero sidepod” W13 automotive for the 2022 season, Serra reportedly instructed the group the automotive idea would not work. Hamilton stated he additionally instructed the group the automotive wasn’t going within the correct course. After Ferrari employed Cedric Vasseur on the finish of 2022, who did Vasseur make his first large exterior rent in July 2023? Loic Serra, who additionally formally begins his function in Maranello firstly of 2025.
Hamilton heads to Italy together with his document 103 wins and 104 pole positions, and record-tying seven F1 Driver’s Championships. The signing creates probably the greatest driver pairings on the grid, and would like to recreate the sort of glory Ferrari hasn’t basked in since Michael Schumacher’s final championship in 2004 — Schumacher being the one different driver with seven titles. Hamilton additionally follows within the footsteps of what can solely be thought-about failed campaigns in purple by Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
Assuming all this goes down the best way it appears now, Hamilton shall be 40 when he joins the Scuderia, and he’ll hope to show Ferrari is not a graveyard for late-career, championship-winning drivers who love the scarlet however who constructed their reputations and gained their trophies elsewhere.