Why Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes to form a Ferrari 'super team'

It's the end of an era and the biggest driver move in Formula 1 history.

After twelve seasons, six world championships and 82 race victories, Lewis Hamilton leaves Mercedes for Ferrari.

It is a day that many thought would never come. Hamilton himself said last year that he expected to stay at Mercedes “until my last days”, and there was “no place I would rather be.”

But the lure of a shock move to Ferrari, announced on Thursday for 2025, proved too strong for the seven-time champion seeking a record-breaking eighth world title.

It's the kind of action that F1 fans – and the figures at the top of the sport itself – could only have dreamed of. Working with Hamilton, F1's most famous and successful driver, and Ferrari, F1's most famous and successful team, is a blockbuster.

Ferrari is likely to enter the 2025 season with the strongest line-up in F1, with Hamilton racing alongside Charles Leclerc, the young star. As 'super-team' line-ups go, barring the unlikely prospect of Hamilton teaming up with Max Verstappen, it's hard to imagine bigger.

Regardless of the outcome, this will be one of the defining stories in F1 for years to come, as 39-year-old Hamilton attempts to write the latest – and possibly final – chapter of his glittering F1 career in Ferrari's famous red cars. .

But why leave Mercedes on the eve of the new season, for a team that hasn't won a championship in fifteen years?

A loss of confidence in Mercedes?

Hamilton and Mercedes formed one of the greatest teams the sport has ever seen.

Six of Hamilton's seven world titles came between 2014 and 2020, his only defeat in that period coming to teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016. Together, Hamilton and Mercedes dominated F1, fending off the threat of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, once hailed as the combination that could do that. ended years of silver success in 2017-2020.

Hamilton came within one correct decision of race control at the 2021 final in Abu Dhabi after breaking Michael Schumacher's record and winning an eighth world title, but Verstappen passed him on the final lap restart to deny him the crown .

The controversy put Hamilton on a redemption arc. Fueled by that sadness, 2022 became the season in which he had to reclaim what should have been his – only for Mercedes to build a car that simply wasn't up to the task. Hamilton knew from the moment he first drove the W13 that it was not good enough to win a title. It wasn't even good enough to win a race, forcing him to go the first season of his F1 career without a single win.

The battle lasted until last year. Hamilton often became frustrated with the limitations of his car, forcing him to endure another winless season as Verstappen and Red Bull dominated proceedings. After the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton summed up his mood as “not great” and cast doubt on anyone taking on Red Bull in 2024: “You can guess where they'll be next year.”

Mercedes had already started overhauling its 2024 car after ditching its radical 'zeropod' concept midway through last year. Expectations were met, but the team was more confident that the car coming out of Brackley this year would not have the same 'hateful' qualities, to quote technical director James Allison, and that this would give Hamilton a better chance of success to get. .

Hamilton will not get an extended run in the Mercedes car until pre-season testing begins in Bahrain later this month. A first taster will take place during a shakedown at Silverstone when the car is launched on February 14, and Hamilton will have driven a model in the simulator that could give an indication of what to expect. But the W15 car's potential won't be truly understood until he actually drives it.

The decision to jump ship now suggests doubts about Mercedes' ability to change course and return to the top from where it once looked down on F1 competition. If Hamilton was completely convinced that Mercedes was the place to win the eighth title he craves, he would not consider going elsewhere, especially given the emotional ties he has with the team.

It will give Hamilton and Mercedes a 'long farewell' until 2024, a final year together to try to succeed. But there will also be the clumsiness of the team's planning for the post-Hamilton era without his involvement, which will gradually phase him out of the top meetings.

What Ferrari has to offer

This is the big question mark about the move. Mercedes have shown little sign of being able to seriously challenge for a championship over the past two years, but neither have Ferrari.

The team started strongly under the new set of F1 regulations in 2022, going head-to-head with Red Bull before falling behind over race distances. Although it was the only team besides Red Bull to win a race last year, courtesy of Carlos Sainz in Singapore, Ferrari's biggest battle was with Mercedes. It ultimately lost the race for second place in the championship by three points.

Like Mercedes, Ferrari has promised an overhaul of its car this year, which will consist of 95 percent new components. It will lay the foundation for Hamilton's first Ferrari F1 car in 2025, the last under current rules before the design rules change significantly again for 2026. That is the year that offers the best chance of ending the dominance of Verstappen and Red Bull.

Hamilton's age must also be taken into account. He will be 40 by the time he joins Ferrari, and although he is still in top condition and has not expressed any doubts about his long-term future, he is not in a position to invest in a long-term project like many of its younger generations. counterparts.

It means there should be immediate success once Hamilton joins in 2025, but his impending arrival will only help build momentum at Maranello. The team is on a recruitment drive and the appeal of teaming up with Hamilton can only help the team attract top technical talent that can aid its bid to win another championship.

On a purely competitive level, the switch from Mercedes to Ferrari seems like a lateral move. But there is one thing Ferrari has offered Hamilton that Mercedes – and frankly no other team – cannot.

The romance behind the move

Ferrari has always had a mythical atmosphere in F1. It is deeply rooted in the history of the sport. You think of F1, and you think of Ferrari.

No team has so much prestige and ability. Even in the fallow periods without a championship, such as the current one dating back to 2008, it has remained a team that the majority of drivers dream of racing one day. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff even acknowledged in 2019 that “it is probably in every driver's mind to drive for Ferrari one day.”

Or as Vettel once put it: “Everyone is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say not, they are Ferrari fans.”

There is a certain amount of romance behind the move. Hamilton has owned Ferrari road cars and has a close friendship with John Elkann, Ferrari's president. Hamilton is also reunited with Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur. Hamilton drove for Vasseur's ART Grand Prix team when he made his way to F1, and they have remained in close contact ever since.

Hamilton has always had great respect for the history of F1. He is passionate about his roots and his history, which means the weight of Ferrari will not rest on him. It's a team that so many of F1's biggest names have driven for at some stage of their careers.

To succeed with Ferrari is in many ways the ultimate story in F1 – and could be huge for Hamilton's own legacy. If his last hurray in F1 were with Ferrari, potentially winning a record-breaking eighth world championship, this would certainly be the ultimate way to end his legendary career.

The alternative? Ferrari fails to deliver a car good enough for Hamilton to return to the top. The strategic abuses and mistakes that have happened all too often in recent years are a source of frustration. There is no eighth world championship.

Even in that scenario, Hamilton can still fulfill the dream that so many F1 drivers cherish, and that few actually realize, of racing for Ferrari. It will take some getting used to seeing him in those famous red overalls, but it is now becoming reality.

It's worth remembering that when Hamilton left McLaren for Mercedes in 2013, when the company had only one race win to his name since his return to F1, there were major doubts about this decision. It turned out to be a masterstroke. He hopes that his judgment has once again proven correct.

(Lewis Hamilton main image: Dan Istitene, Bryn Lennon / Getty Images; Design: John Bradford/The athletics)