Shocking news announced this morning as Lewis Hamilton will be joining Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Many fans of the support are surprised to see this move, however, there have been signs for a while showing that this move may happen. But what does this mean for the rest of the grid moving forward?
Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton has been at Mercedes for over 10 years, racing alongside the likes of Rosberg, Bottas and most recently George Russel. He has won numerous championships with the team, cementing him as one of the greats. Unfortunately, his time with the team is coming to an end after the 2024 season with a move to join Charles Leclerc at Ferrari at the start of the 2025 season.
But why now? Well.. there have been numerous hints of this move over the last few years. Leclerc has wanted Hamilton as a teammate for a long time and Ferrari has been pushing for another championship through the dominant Mercedes and Red Bull era. Right now, it’s unclear how long Lewis will stay at Ferrari but he has said he has a few more years in him yet.
After a couple of years of poor performance, engine failures, and strategy issues – perhaps Lewis can help Ferrari push for another constructor Championship with two top-tier drivers alongside Leclerc.
What about Sainz?
Carlos Sainz (currently at Ferrari) has been rumoured to be joining Audi when they join the grid in 2026 – perhaps he’s looking to take a year out or simply join Mercedes for that interim period alongside Russel. The pair are known to be good friends so this change would make sense.
We also received news this week that Formula 1 has declined Andretti and Cadillac’s application to join the grid due to a lack of “added value”. Perhaps they are considering another team to join the grid and add 2 seats for Carlos to jump into alongside a rookie.
Sainz has shown he is as good of a driver as Leclerc with a similar performance over the 2023 season, unfortunately, Ferrari has decided to stick with Leclerc as their poster boy… for now.
The Rest of the Grid
With this change, we will likely see a massive shake-up for the rest of the grid. Rumours of Perez’s retirement have been circulating since his “poor” performance last year in comparison to his teammate.
We may see Ricciardo take his place and the young Kiwi Liam Lawson jump in a permanent seat after his stellar performance in his few races with Alpha Tauri.
There is also plenty of young talent ready for their turn in F1 with F2 champions, third drivers and more patiently waiting to be called into a seat. To name a few, Jack Doohan, Oliver Bearman and Aston Martin 3rd driver Felipe Drugovich all showed great performances during practice sessions towards the latter end of last season.
Other rumoured changes across the grid include Sargeant, Magnusson and Alonso “expected” to make a departure at the end of 2024 due to retirement – or simply poor performance. However, this is all rumoured.
All we know for now is Lewis is off to Ferrari for his last few years in F1.
