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Lewis Hamilton will probably be leaving Mercedes on the finish of the 2024 season after 11 years to affix Ferrari, the place he’ll accomplice Charles Leclerc in a blockbuster line-up; Hamilton has signed ‘multi-year deal’ with Ferrari; watch each F1 race in 2024 dwell on Sky Sports F1
By Nigel Chiu and James Galloway
Mercedes have revealed Lewis Hamilton activated a launch clause to depart the workforce to maneuver to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.
Ferrari confirmed on Thursday night that seven-time world champion Hamilton has joined the workforce on a multi-year deal from subsequent season.
“The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton will part ways at the end of the 2024 season,” learn a Mercedes assertion.
“Lewis has activated a release option in the contract announced last August and this season will therefore be his last driving for the Silver Arrows.”
Hamilton added: “I’ve had an incredible 11 years with this workforce and I’m so happy with what now we have achieved collectively. Mercedes has been a part of my life since I used to be 13 years outdated.
“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.
“I will probably be perpetually grateful for the unimaginable assist of my Mercedes household, particularly Toto for his friendship and management and I need to end on a excessive collectively. I’m 100 per cent dedicated to delivering the perfect efficiency I can this season and making my final 12 months with the Silver Arrows, one to recollect.”
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz, Damon Hill and Karun Chandhok have their say on the monumental information that Lewis Hamilton will be a part of Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton will accomplice Charles Leclerc on the Italian workforce in a blockbuster line-up that includes two of F1’s quickest drivers and largest names. It leaves Carlos Sainz searching for one other seat on the grid past the tip of this season when his contract expires.
“Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” stated an announcement from Sainz.
“We still have a long season ahead of us and, like always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the Tifosi all around the world. News about my future will be announced in due course.”
Sky F1’s Jenson Button want to see his former teammate Fernando Alonso substitute Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for the 2025 season.
Wolff: We settle for Hamilton’s determination
Hamilton, who turned 39 in January and will probably be 40 by the point he begins his new profession in Italy, has gained six of his seven world titles at Mercedes since becoming a member of from McLaren in 2013 in a interval when driver and workforce have rewritten F1’s file books.
Mercedes will now start a seek for Hamilton’s alternative, with George Russell on a deal within the different seat till the tip of 2025.
“In terms of a team-driver pairing, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has seen, and that’s something we can look back on with pride,” stated Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Damon Hill and Natalie Pinkham debate whether or not Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari is the most important in historical past on a particular version of the F1 Show.
“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.
“We settle for Lewis’s determination to hunt a recent problem, and our alternatives for the longer term are thrilling to ponder. But for now, we nonetheless have one season to go, and we’re targeted on going racing to ship a powerful 2024.”
Hamilton and Ferrari lastly tying the knot
Sky Sports News’ Craig Slater explains why Lewis Hamilton is taking a ‘calculated danger’ by transferring from Mercedes to Ferrari within the 2025 F1 season.
A high-profile marriage between F1’s present most well-known driver and its most well-known workforce has been speculated at irregular intervals for years however a remaining probability of a union had appeared to cross them by when Hamilton agreed a two-year Mercedes contract extension final August which was set to take him to the eve of his forty first birthday.
But that has now all modified in probably the most surprising of manners.
Although he had spoken with admiration concerning the Ferrari and its historical past up to now, and owns Ferrari street automobiles, Hamilton had additionally beforehand made clear he can be content material had been his record-breaking profession to finish with out driving in motorsport’s most well-known crimson.
When requested whether or not he’d really feel unfulfilled if he by no means drove for Ferrari, ,Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton supplied an insightful reply again in 2019.
Hamilton’s affiliation with Mercedes dates again to 1998 when he first joined McLaren, who had been then part-owned by Mercedes, as a 13-year-old. Speaking in 2019, Hamilton spoke concerning the significance of these long-standing ties and acknowledged that “when you are part of Mercedes you are part of a family for a lifetime, provided you stay with them”.
But he additionally caveated that by including: “Loyalty is a very, very key part but if there’s a point in my life where I decide that I want a change then that [joining Ferrari] could potentially be an option.”
The Sky F1 pundits on Hamilton’s blockbuster transfer
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz, Damon Hill and Karun Chandhok have their say on the monumental information that Lewis Hamilton will be a part of Ferrari in 2025.
Martin Brundle: “Lewis has had a couple of years of not winning a race and we’ve seen a couple of other changes he’s made, bringing Marc Hynes back, who was his long-time mentor and eyes and ears in the paddock.
“I believe he is in all probability gone ‘I’m going to cease specializing in all the issues outdoors of racing and get again to Lewis Hamilton the racing driver’. I believe this can be a great alternative to inspire him and energise him for this section of his profession.
“There are a few drivers who seem to have an energy and determination to keep going. Fernando Alonso is one and Lewis Hamilton is another.”
Karun Chandhok: “Somehow, somewhere, he’s either lost confidence in the Mercedes project and doesn’t believe they can give him a chance to fight Max Verstappen, or it’s just the romantic lure of driving in Ferrari red.”
Damon Hill: “Lewis has a racer’s instinct as to which way the wind is blowing and I think he may have actually pulled a blinder – just like he did when he left McLaren and went to Mercedes.”
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