By Lauren Whitt, Sports Management, 2026

Formula 1 nation was shocked when Lewis Hamilton, one of the biggest names in the sport announced to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the preseason breakfast that for the 2025 season he would be leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari. When he started with Mercedes in 2013 in the early years he had a dominant career, winning 6 out of his 7 World Championships during his 11 years there. Recently though Mercedes has not been performing at the top like they used to. Having car issues for the past few seasons has set them behind other teams on the podium for results.

Joining Ferrari in 2025, he will be racing alongside Charles Leclerc in the iconic fiery red. In the 2023 season for the World Constructors Championship, Mercedes placed 2nd with 409 points and Ferrari was not far behind in 3rd place with 406 points. This ground-shaking switch was fueled by Hamilton’s desire for something new and challenging while he continues to strive for his 8th World Championship. This would make him the highest World Championship holder in all F1 history, surpassing Michael Schumacher who is tied with him at 7 titles. Throughout 2023 he was left with no first-place finishing races. For 2023 the standings on points left Lewis Hamilton in 3rd and Charles Leclerc in 5th, making the pair a dominant team going into 2025.

2007 was when Lewis Hamilton had his F1 debut racing for McLaren where he won his first World Championship in 2008 before moving to Mercedes. When he did make his debut for McLaren, he was the first Black driver to join F1 at only 22 years old. He is now one of the best-known names in F1 history and his chase for potentially holding the most World Championships will add to his current fame.

He said that deciding to leave Mercedes for Ferrari was one of the hardest decisions he ever had to make. And while making the decision he kept it so private that even his parents did not know until the morning it was announced. He wanted the time to reflect on his own and think about it all the way through. His current contract with Mercedes was a 2-year contract he had signed during the 2023 season but had to cut it short by one year exercising his right to leave. The contract was a two-way deal that if Mercedes was not happy with Hamilton as a driver they could search elsewhere, but also at the same time if Hamilton was not happy with the performance at Mercedes, he could leave. Now for 2025, we are unsure who will take over his seat at Mercedes, but there are rumors of a 17-year-old F2 driver named Andrea Kimi Antonelli, as well as other drivers. The seat that Hamilton is taking over is Carlos Sainz’s and there are also many rumors going around about who Sainz’s will be driving for at the start of the 2025 season.

Toto Wolff, who is Mercedes Team Principal and CEO had previously put in Hamilton’s contract that he was unable to personally contact the engineers and staff at Mercedes and take them with him. So, we are unsure if Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington, who is Hamilton’s top engineer will be able to go alongside him in 2025. Drivers leaving their current team and taking with them their most trusted engineers and team members has been a problem in years before that left the teams scrambling to replace crucial staff.

A lot of rising attention and attractiveness of the sport has been driven by the Netflix original series Drive to Survive, which first aired in 2019. The first season follows the 2018 season from all the races, drama, and everything in between. The most recent season #6 aired on Netflix on February 23, 2024. This season’s release is shortly following Lewis Hamilton’s news of his switch to Ferrari which I feel will boost the show’s views and interest. Since the show aired there has been a 15% increase in viewers per year for the sport. So in my eyes this decision Lewis Hamilton has made to move to Ferrari will boost not only the show. But, also boost his image as well as Ferrari and Mercedes’ while people keep a close eye on what will happen for the 2025 season. Hopefully when the 2024 season airs next year we will be able to see more behind the scenes on his decision to switch.

 

 

 

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