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Seven-time Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is to affix Ferrari in time for the 2025 season, ditching the Mercedes workforce that has powered his record-breaking profession.
The British driver’s shock transfer will unite the worldwide sequence’ most profitable driver with the one workforce that has competed in each F1 season.
The Italian racing group mentioned on Thursday that Hamilton could be becoming a member of in 2025 on a multiyear contract.
The transfer highlights the pulling energy of Ferrari, in addition to Mercedes’ battle to supply Hamilton with a automobile that may compete with Red Bull Racing on the entrance of the grid.
Ferrari has lured arguably the perfect driver in F1 historical past: nobody has notched up greater than Hamilton’s 103 wins, 104 pole positions and 197 podiums.
Born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, Hamilton emerged as a go-karting champion. He started his automobile racing profession within the 2001 and went on to grow to be a family identify at McLaren Racing, the place he gained the primary of his world titles in 2008.
Hamilton’s looming departure from Mercedes comes after two troublesome seasons for the Brackley-based outfit, which is collectively owned by German Mercedes-Benz Group, workforce boss Toto Wolff and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos.
“We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate,” Wolff mentioned. “But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
Hamilton mentioned that leaving Mercedes had been “one of the hardest decisions” he had needed to make, and thanked Wolff for his “friendship and leadership”.
“I want to finish on a high together,” he mentioned. “I am 100 per cent committed to deliver the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows one to remember.”
The 39-year-old is tied on seven drivers’ titles with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, who gained his championships with the “Scuderia” earlier than ending his F1 profession at Mercedes.
Hamilton has not gained a grand prix since December 2021 — in Saudi Arabia. Per week later he was was denied victory in Abu Dhabi within the season’s finale when the game’s governing physique incorrectly utilized the principles. The choice price him the title in addition to a possibility to drag forward of Schumacher. Mercedes has since struggled to adapt to new technical automobile specs and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has gained three titles in a row.
Ferrari’s on-track struggles are effectively documented. The Maranello workforce has did not high the constructors’ standings since 2008. It has not gained the drivers’ championship since Finland’s Kimi Räikkönen beat Hamilton to the title in 2007.
In Hamilton, who has nearly 44mn followers throughout social media platforms Instagram and X, Ferrari is signing a sportsman whose standing transcends F1. His pursuits vary from enterprise and trend to range and sustainability. He is a part-owner of the Denver Broncos National Football League franchise.
Hamilton, who was the primary black driver in F1, spoke up when police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. He subsequently arrange the Hamilton Commission in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering to assist in giving alternatives to black individuals in motorsport and science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic.
However, he has additionally beforehand needed to defend himself over criticism of his tax preparations.