Mercedes have revealed Lewis Hamilton activated a launch clause to depart the group to maneuver to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

Ferrari confirmed on Thursday night that seven-time world champion Hamilton has joined the group 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 group and I’m so pleased with what we’ve achieved collectively. Mercedes has been a part of my life since I used to be 13 years previous.

“It’s a spot the place I’ve grown up, so making the choice to depart was one of many hardest selections I’ve ever needed to make. But the time is correct for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking over a brand new problem.

“I will be forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together. I am 100 per cent committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”

Hamilton will associate Charles Leclerc on the Italian group in a blockbuster line-up that includes two of F1’s quickest drivers and largest names. It leaves Carlos Sainz in search of one other seat on the grid past the top of this season when his contract expires.

“Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” mentioned 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.”

Wolff: We settle for Hamilton’s determination

Hamilton, who turned 39 in January and might 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 group have rewritten F1’s file books.

Mercedes will now start a seek for Hamilton’s substitute, with George Russell on a deal within the different seat till the top 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,” mentioned Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

“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 contemporary 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 centered on going racing to ship a powerful 2024.”

Hamilton and Ferrari lastly tying the knot

A high-profile marriage between F1’s present most well-known driver and its most well-known group has been speculated at irregular intervals for years however a ultimate likelihood of a union had appeared to go 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 essentially the most sudden of manners.

Although he had spoken with admiration in regards to the Ferrari and its historical past previously, and owns Ferrari street automobiles, Hamilton had additionally beforehand made clear he can be content material have been his record-breaking profession to finish with out driving in motorsport’s most well-known purple.

Hamilton’s affiliation with Mercedes dates again to 1998 when he first joined McLaren, who have been then part-owned by Mercedes, as a 13-year-old. Speaking in 2019, Hamilton spoke in regards to 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

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 exterior of racing and get again to Lewis Hamilton the racing driver’. I believe this can be a fantastic alternative to encourage 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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