Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will trade Mercedes for Ferrari in a year

In Formula 1, a transition will soon be announced, which seems destined to be considered the loudest in this century. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, despite his recently extended contract, will exchange Mercedes for Ferrari in a year. The reasons that provoked the Briton to take this unexpected step seem to be very different: from disappointment in the capabilities of his team and his car, which was inferior in speed to Red Bull for two years in a row, to the desire, at the end of his career, to still be part of the most important motorsport brand, which Hamilton’s idol Ayrton Senna never managed to achieve.

The fact that Lewis Hamilton’s transfer will be announced in the near future was reported by many publications from Italy, Spain, and the UK. They say that on Thursday all Mercedes employees were invited to an emergency briefing. On it, team leaders Toto Wolff and James Ellison informed them of their separation after the end of the next championship, starting on March 2, with Hamilton.

Most sources insist that it will happen on the initiative of the driver himself, about whom it is well known that he has long been on friendly terms with Ferrari president John Elkann.

In the new team, the Briton will most likely take the place of Spaniard Carlos Sainz. His partner will be the famous pilot Charles Leclerc, representing Monaco.

This event turned into, quite possibly, the most high-profile transfer in Formula 1 of the current century for two reasons. The first is Lewis Hamilton’s track record and popularity. We are talking about one of the brightest superstars in the history of motorsport. Hamilton is a seven-time Formula 1 champion and co-owns the record for most titles with the legendary Michael Schumacher.

The second reason is the circumstances of this transfer. Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013. Before that, he played for another top team – McLaren, and in 2008 he opened his account of winning champion titles. However, he won the other six with Mercedes, having dominated behind the wheel of its car in the previous decade. And over time, their connection began to be perceived almost as indestructible. This assumption was only confirmed by the extension of the Briton’s contract with Mercedes in August for two years. That is, he must spend two more seasons in it.

Sources name various versions explaining Lewis Hamilton’s action. Some come down to pragmatic reasons. Hamilton’s dominance ended after his seventh victory in the championship in 2020. In the final race of the next championship, he won the title took away Dutchman Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team made a powerful technological breakthrough. Later, its advantage in speed and ability to adapt to constant adjustments to regulations over competitors, including Mercedes, became even more obvious.

Verstappen had no equal either in 2022 or in 2023, and Hamilton was unable to even indicate a fight with him, taking first sixth and then third place in the final classification.

At the same time, he repeatedly made it clear that he expected progress from those responsible for preparing his car that would allow him to claim the eighth title. And journalists who participated in a meeting with Hamilton at the end of last season admitted that they felt some disappointment or at least indifference in his discussions about the team’s prospects.

The other version is rather irrational, taking into account the fact that Ferrari is unlikely to be the very option that will definitely bring Lewis Hamilton closer to the status of the sole Formula 1 record holder. The team’s last great successes date back not even to the last decade, but to the decade before last – this is Kimi Raikkonen’s title in 2007 and the Constructors’ Championship in 2008. Last year’s state, let’s say, of Ferrari was no better than that in which Mercedes was. In the Constructors’ Championship, the Italian team found itself one line lower – in third position. However, Ferrari has a special property. This brand, even in its worst times in purely sporting terms, remains the most popular, without losing any of its magnetism either from the point of view of fans or from the point of view of pilots.

BBC does not rule out that at the end of his career, 39-year-old Lewis Hamilton simply decided to finally close the gap in his biography by doing what his childhood idol, the great Brazilian Ayrton Senna, did not manage to do, like many other racers, who did not hide that he would like to do it early or it’s too late to become part of a unique brand. But his dream was not destined to come true: in 1994, the Brazilian crashed to death while driving a Williams at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Alexey Dospehov