It was one of those reports that comes around the corner out of nowhere. It came as a surprise even to Toto Wolff. Lewis Hamilton confessed on Wednesday morning at his home in Oxford that he would shorten his Mercedes contract and drive for Ferrari from 2025.
The Mercedes team boss admitted: “What was surprising wasn’t that it happened, but rather the timing, so close to the season. When we said goodbye for Christmas vacation, we were still on the same wavelength.”
Hamilton only said yes to Mercedes for two more years at the end of August 2023. However, with an exit clause. And that apparently allowed him to pull the plug early without any conditions.
“We decided together last year to give each other a shorter contract term than usual. This should leave both parties more options for 2025. It was therefore clear that Lewis had the opportunity to leave us after just one year.”
Wilhelm
Toto Wolff has to look for a replacement for Hamilton.
Dream of red overalls
Hamilton made his decision before a wheel of the new cars had turned. Today he cannot estimate where Mercedes and Ferrari will be this season and who has the better chance of beating Red Bull in the medium term.
Ferrari was already after him last summer, and even then they already knew that Carlos Sainz’s contract would expire at the end of 2024 and a place in the red cars would be available. Then as now, money played no role. Ferrari would have paid him what he asked for last year.
Nevertheless, Hamilton weighed it down five months ago: “There was never any serious contact with Ferrari.” Now he has reportedly committed to Ferrari for two years plus an option. This raises the question of what has happened since he signed with Mercedes to make him change his mind so quickly.
Wolff can also only assume: “He just said to me that he needed a new challenge and a new environment. Lewis is now 39 years old. He didn’t have much time left to fulfill his dream of wearing a red overall to wear.”
Wilhelm
Was it just the temptation of Ferrari, or did Hamilton know that not much progress was being made at Mercedes?
Why the change of heart?
Nevertheless, the question remains: Is it really the Ferrari myth that makes Hamilton change sides? Is it enough for an exit that Ferrari was 53 points better than Mercedes in the second half of the 2023 season? That the engineers in Maranello apparently understood the faults of their car better than their colleagues in Brackley?
Last September, Hamilton could not seriously expect that the Mercedes would become a winning car by the end of the season. And in our interview at the end of November he didn’t sound like someone who doubted his team: “I think we have a compass again. We now understand the car much better because we have developed great tools in the background to help it “I have hope, but I’m still holding my breath.”
Toto Wolff therefore does not believe that the results after the 2023 summer break or first impressions of the new Mercedes W15 in the simulator influenced the decision. “Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren were recently on the same technical level. Nobody stood out. If Lewis had gone to Red Bull, then the motive would have been clear.”
Wilhelm
Hamilton has been working with race engineer Pete Bonnington for ages. The Brit initially believed it was an April Fool’s joke.
The real April Fool’s joke
After the first rumors about the sensational transfer hit the internet, Mercedes first reacted internally. On Thursday afternoon (February 1), Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and his technical director James Allison informed the staff in Brackley and Brixworth that Hamilton was leaving the racing team at the end of 2024. When Hamilton’s race engineer Pete Bonnington heard about this, he asked his boss: “Is today April 1st?”
The speech only lasted ten minutes. The first reaction within our own ranks was the question: Who is coming to Hamilton? “That’s our mentality. Always look forward, never look back. Get up when we fall,” reports the team boss.
In the evening it became official. Wolff and Hamilton recalled eleven years together in the factory team and assured that it was a good farewell. “We knew that our partnership would one day come to an end, and that day has now come,” explained Wolff.
The public impression was different. It was more likely that Mercedes would be a lifetime job for Hamilton. The seven-time world champion liked to refer to Mercedes as “my family”.
Wilhelm
The last races of the 2023 season did not go to Hamilton’s liking.
Was Hamilton running out of patience?
Nevertheless, there were always indications that Hamilton might be running out of patience. Two years without a GP victory must take its toll on someone who has previously won 103 Grands Prix. At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, an English tabloid reported that the record winner had tried in vain to land at Red Bull. But at Red Bull the door was closed.
With Max Verstappen you have your own Hamilton. Looking back, it turned out that father Anthony Hamilton had probably asked Christian Horner whether there could still be a place available for his son.
When Ferrari only extended Charles Leclerc’s contract a week ago, but not Carlos Sainz’s, it fueled the old suspicion that there could be more to the “Hamilton to Ferrari” story than just wishful thinking. FCA boss John Elkann is an avowed Hamilton fan and is said to speak to the record winner on the phone regularly. Ferrari race director Frédéric Vasseur knows Hamilton from their days together in GP2.
The fact that Ferrari is now landing the biggest fish in the pond gives the traditional team some breathing room. The anticipation in Maranello is as great as it was 29 years ago when Michael Schumacher announced his presence. The sensational transfer is more reminiscent of Sebastian Vettel, who also used a clause in 2014 to leave Red Bull early. However, this was clearly linked to results at a certain point in the season.
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According to Toto Wolff, they deliberately agreed on a short-term contract.
Hamilton’s great challenge
The commitment of Hamilton and the extension with Leclerc are also a task for the team of hearts. Ferrari has the best driver pairing in the field in 2025 and therefore no more excuses. For Hamilton, the move to Ferrari is also a risk, no matter how great the brand’s appeal may be.
He will be 40 next year and will be joining a racing team where he hardly knows anyone. He doesn’t speak the language. He first has to learn the special dynamics in a politically difficult environment. It is completely different to what he was used to at Mercedes.
Hamilton meets Leclerc, who has been driving for Ferrari since 2019, speaks Italian, knows what makes the key figures in the team tick and is well connected there. The engineers know him and know which car he needs to be fast. Leclerc is currently the fastest Formula 1 driver on a lap and should offer Hamilton at least as much resistance as George Russell.
Mercedes
Several well-known engineers have recently left the factory in Brackley.
Creeping sell-off
For Mercedes, Hamilton’s decision is a slap in the face. The only global star among the Formula 1 drivers was the best ambassador for the brand with the star and his activities in social networks gave him access to younger groups of buyers. In the car, the eccentric Englishman is beyond any doubt. You could forgive him for being a mimosa every now and then.
Even if Hamilton wants to make his final season in the Silver Arrow one that everyone remembers, he is opening another hole in a former world champion team that is facing a slow sell-off.
Two years ago, the two leading aerodynamicists Eric Blandin and Enrico Balbo switched sides and today work successfully for Aston Martin and Red Bull. In the winter of 2022/23, chief strategist James Vowles left the racing team to become team boss at Williams. Chassis boss Loic Serra was recently poached by Ferrari, where he starts work at the same time as Hamilton.
Motorsport Images
A Vettel comeback at Mercedes is unlikely. Alonso would be a brave choice.
Rookie or veteran?
With Hamilton, a driver is leaving who will be difficult to replace. Wolff admits that he would have liked to have known earlier, because in the meantime Charles Leclerc and the two McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are off the market. George Russell plays a key role. “With him we have a real team leader. That’s why we can be a little more relaxed in our driver search and take our time with the choice,” says Wolff with a sigh of relief.
Among the alternatives that immediately come to mind, there is none that immediately comes to mind. Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly or Esteban Ocon can win a Grand Prix on a good day, but you don’t trust them to win a world title.
Super talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli is driving his first Formula 2 season this year, but even if he wins the title he would still be a bit too green behind the ears for a team with the gravity of Mercedes. “He should concentrate fully on this task. Connecting him to a place with us now would be counterproductive,” warns Wolff.
If Mercedes wants to have a world champion in its stable again in 2025, the team has to jump over its shadow. Then the only option is the little-loved Fernando Alonso, who will then be 44 years old.
Or you have to bring Sebastian Vettel out of retirement. The four-time former champion could become weak again at Mercedes. Wolff was in contact with Vettel just a few hours after Hamilton’s change became known. However, according to the Austrian, there was no talk of a comeback. “I think Sebastian has finished with the subject.”