Lewis Hamilton will make a sensational transfer to Ferrari for the 2025 Formulation One season on a multiyear contract, the Italian staff confirmed on Thursday.

Hamilton, a seven-time world champion and winner of a document 103 races, will drive for Mercedes this coming season earlier than changing Carlos Sainz the next yr.

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Hamilton, 39, signed a brand new two-year contract with Mercedes final yr however exercised a launch choice to permit him to stroll away from the staff after only one season.

Hamilton mentioned leaving Mercedes “was one of many hardest choices I’ve ever needed to make.”

He added: “The time is true for me to take this step and I am excited to be taking up a brand new problem. I will probably be eternally grateful for the unimaginable help of my Mercedes household, particularly Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] for his friendship and management and I need to end on a excessive collectively.

“I’m 100% dedicated to delivering one of the best efficiency I can this season and making my final yr with the Silver Arrows, one to recollect.”

Ferrari, F1’s most profitable staff and the one one to have competed in each world championship season, has not gained a drivers title since Kimi Raikkonen’s in 2007.

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Hamilton, tied with Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher with seven titles, now has an opportunity to finish the Italian staff’s drought and transfer clear as F1’s most embellished champion within the course of.

Had been he to take action, he would turn out to be the primary driver to win championships with three completely different groups since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957.

Rumours of Hamilton becoming a member of Ferrari have been frequent all through his profession, however Thursday’s information nonetheless appeared to return out of the blue — ESPN has been advised even Mercedes was caught off guard, which is mirrored within the reality they haven’t but confirmed a driver to exchange him.

ESPN sources confirmed the information of Hamilton’s change on Thursday morning. Ferrari chairman John Elkann, identified to be a long-time admirer of Hamilton’s means, wished Ferrari so as to add a big-name driver to accomplice Charles Leclerc going ahead.

Leclerc lately signed a contract extension till not less than 2026 — Elkann’s ambitions now clarify why Ferrari had been stalling on doing comparable with Sainz.

Leclerc has been with Ferrari since earlier than he joined F1 however, regardless of forging a fame as the game’s quickest qualifier, questions stay about his means to win a championship, having made a string of high-profile errors underneath stress.

Forward of final yr’s Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton and Ferrari staff boss Fred Vasseur laughed off reviews that the British driver was about to signal with the staff, however sources say Elkann continued chasing Hamilton’s signature even after he agreed an extension with Mercedes and that negotiations intensified in the direction of the top of the yr and into January.

Vasseur labored with Hamilton when he gained the GP2 (now Formulation Two) title in 2006 with the ART staff and the 2 have remained on good phrases since.

Till Thursday’s bombshell announcement, Hamilton had appeared completely satisfied to see out his profession with Mercedes, the staff he joined in 2013 in what has gone down as among the best driver strikes in current instances.

Hamilton gained six of his seven world titles with the staff in probably the most dominant spell in F1 historical past, which noticed Mercedes win the constructors championship eight instances in a row between 2014 and 2021.

After being controversially denied an eighth drivers title on the ultimate lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton failed to attain a single race victory in both 2022 or 2023.

Final yr he mentioned Mercedes wanted one of the best six months of improvement in F1 historical past simply to catch the dominant Crimson Bull staff.

Mercedes appeared set to enter the longer term with the core of its staff collectively — staff boss Toto Wolff lately signed a three-year extension, whereas Hamilton’s teammate George Russell is underneath contract till the top of 2025.

The identification of Hamilton’s substitute will now be a serious speaking level for the season forward.

“We knew our partnership would come to a pure finish in some unspecified time in the future, and that day has now come,” Wolff mentioned. “We settle for Lewis’s determination to hunt a recent problem, and our alternatives for the longer term are thrilling to ponder.”

Williams driver Alex Albon, who loved a standout 2023 and is an efficient good friend of Russell, seems to be a robust candidate.

Sainz is taken into account extra more likely to signal with Audi’s incoming F1 mission in 2026, though he now could also be a left-field choice for Mercedes as they give the impression of being to fill the void.

“Following at present’s information, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will half methods on the finish of 2024,” Sainz mentioned in a press release posted on X.

“We nonetheless have a protracted season forward of us and, like all the time, I’ll give my very best for the staff and for the Tifosi all around the globe.

“Information about my future will probably be introduced in the end.”

Daniel Ricciardo, who will race for the newly named Crimson Bull junior staff Visa Money App RB this yr, can also be more likely to be linked to the seat, though he has made it clear he needs to exchange Sergio Perez at Crimson Bull in 2025.

Added consideration will now be paid to the progress of Mercedes wonderkid junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who will race in Formulation Two this season. The Italian teenager, who signed a improvement cope with Mercedes over Ferrari, has been tipped as a future star of the game, however an elevation in 2025 is perhaps thought-about too early.