Seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will be driving for Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

He will be joining the Italian team on a "multi-year contract".

Team Statement

Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team in 2025, on a multi-year contract. pic.twitter.com/moEMqUgzXH

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 1, 2024

He will replace Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, and will race alongside Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, who recently re-signed his contract with Ferrari.

Hamilton won six of his seven championship with Mercedes, and has repeatedly emphasised that he would stay at Mercedes until the end of his career.

His current contract with Mercedes is slated to end after the 2025 season.

However, he activated a release option in his contract, marking 2024 as his last season driving for the German team.

In his statement, Hamilton said that making the decision to leave "was one of the hardest decisions" he has 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," he said.

for people who are confused rn: this is the formula one equivalent of zayn leaving one direction

— beea (@evilscuderia) February 1, 2024

Closes chapter on Mercedes

Won six championships with team

When Hamilton decided to move from Mclaren, the team that he had won his first championship with, to a newly-rebranded Mercedes, he was met with backlash.

But the team quickly became one of the most successful teams in F1 history during the turbo-hybrid era, when teams were required to use turbochargers and hybrid electric engines.

Hamilton won the World Drivers' Championship with Mercedes in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The only other driver to have won seven world championships is Michael Schumacher.

Faltering faith

In 2021, Hamilton and current world champion Max Verstappen entered the last race level on points.

However, he was overtaken by Verstappen on the last lap after a highly controversial decision by race director Michael Massi.

In 2022, new regulations had been implemented, which reintroduced the use of ground effect cars.

Mercedes struggled with performance under the new regulations, and were beaten by rivals Red Bull Racing.

Despite the snag, Hamilton renewed his contracts with Mercedes, and he said that he would stay with the team.

Activated release option in contract

Hamilton had re-committed himself to Mercedes in August 2023, when he signed a new deal to race with the team through the 2024 and 2025 season.

However, Mercedes' statement revealed that Hamilton activated a release option in his contract, which allowed him to make the jump to Ferarri for 2025.

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal and CEO, said the team's partnership with Lewis is "something [the team] can look back on with pride."

"Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history. However, we knew our partnership would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come," he added.

Home of the greats

Scuderia Ferrari is the oldest surviving F1 team, and home to a long and prestigious list of drivers.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1)

The only other driver to ever win seven world championships, Michael Schumacher, won five of his championships with Ferrari.

Their most recent constructors' championship was won in 2008, and their most recent drivers' championship was won by Kimi Räikkönen in 2007.

Since then, the team has been hungry for success, often being frontrunners but coming just short of rivals Mercedes and Red Bull.

Several championship winning drivers, such as Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, have made the switch to Ferrari after winning their titles with other teams, only to face limited success.

In 2023, Ferrari was the only other team to win a race apart from Red Bull Racing when Sainz won the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Grand Prix.

Top photo via Mercedes and Ferrari