Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he will depart Mercedes at the end of the upcoming season, following an 11-year run. As of the 2025 season, he is expected to join Ferrari, according to Sky Sports News. “I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together,” Hamilton said in a statement.
“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.”
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Previously linked with Ferrari, Hamilton signed a two-year contract worth £100m last summer to stay until the end of 2025. The seven-time world champion will replace Carlos Sainz, whose contract is up at the end of 2024, while Ferrari’s other driver, Charles Leclerc, signed a new long-term agreement recently.
Prior to signing his current deal in May 2023, Hamilton told ESPN that he would be lying if he said he had never “thought about ending my career anywhere else.”
“I thought about and watched the Ferrari drivers on the screens at the track and, of course, you wonder what it would be like to be in red,” he added. In addition, he added he was happy to be at Mercedes and that it was his “home.”
From 2014 to 2020, Hamilton won six world titles in seven years under the Mercedes partnership, ending a long-standing and exceptionally lucrative relationship. Despite this, Mercedes has lost ground since 2021, and Hamilton has yet to win a race since then.
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s comments in May regarding a Ferrari switch have resurfaced. During an interview with Sky Sports F1, he noted that any decision to move to another team would not be affected by Mercedes’ 2023 struggles.
“No, it doesn’t have a bearing,” Hamilton said. “I think becauseI don’t feel like we’ve lost. We’re still a championship winning team. It’s just we’ve had the wrong car. There have been some decisions that have been made over the past two years that have not been ideal. And we’re working our way through that.”
At the time, Hamilton also denied that Ferrari had contacted him. F1’s new season begins on Feb. 28 with the Bahrain Grand Prix.
