by VALERIO BARRETTA
Hamilton in Ferrari, it's all true
The unimaginable happened: Lewis Hamilton separates from Mercedes at the end of 2024 and will become a pilot of the Ferrari starting from 2025. The Brackley team announced the news at 8pm and the Maranello team ten minutes later. For Hamilton, a multi-year contract whose duration Ferrari has not specified (which however, according to what has emerged, will be two years with an option for a third year).
The seven-time world champion took advantage of an exit clause from the contract which initially expired in 2025, as confirmed by the same team with which he won six world titles.
The press release from Mercedes
“Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton will part ways at the end of the 2024 season“This is what we read in the Mercedes press release. “Lewis activated a release clause in the contract announced last August and this season will therefore be his last in charge of the Silver Arrows. The news brings to an end what is currently a 17-year relationship in F1 with Mercedes-Benz and an 11-year relationship with the works team“.
“Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will join the team from the 2025 season, with a multi-year contract“, this is the press release from the Scuderia.
A historic coup
This is one of the most galactic market coups in the history of Formula 1, certainly the most sensational one since those involving Michael Schumacher, who moved from Benetton to Ferrari in 1996 and then returned to F1 in 2010 with Mercedes. Schumi's moves, however, were announced by days (if not months) of indiscretions. Hamilton in Ferrari, however, was little more than a hypothesis, denied several times by all parties involved despite mutual esteem. The coup brought home by president John Elkann and team principal Frederic Vasseur, in fact, was not even mentioned at all, also because Hamilton signed a contract renewal with Mercedes last year until the end of 2025. All this was valid until to yesterday, when the first signs of a sudden acceleration of the operation arrived. Then, on this day at the beginning of February 2024, it became official. Everything in a hurry, other than the 350 km/h of the track: Hamilton and the Ferrari are like two lovers who, finally free, ran towards each other and kissed.
#Official #Lewis #Hamilton #Ferrari #driver #starting
