Lewis Hamilton LIVE: F1 star explains Ferrari move for 2025 and latest news

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff hinted that the team will make a “bold” move to replace Lewis Hamilton after their star driver chose to join Ferrari next year.

Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton, who won six of his seven titles at Mercedes, will leave the Silver Arrows at the end of the year to take up a “multi-year contract” at Ferrari in 2025.

It leaves Wolff, who has worked with Hamilton for the last 11 years, needing to find a new driver to partner George Russell next year.

Here are a couple of excerpts from Kieran Jackson’s look at the winners and losers from Hamilton’s Ferrari move:

LOSER

Carlos Sainz

“Let’s start with the most obvious. This is a bitter pill for Carlos Sainz to swallow.

“The only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last year – with a terrifically intelligent drive in Singapore - the Spaniard would be right to feel hard done by. Yes, he’s made mistakes, but his progress as a driver while at the Scuderia has been unquestionable.

“But F1 is full of stories of drivers being harshly swept aside. Sainz will come back – and should have no shortage of suitors.”

WINNER

George Russell

“As now the only confirmed driver for Mercedes in 2025, on the cusp of a new era of regulations a year later, this is the opportunity for George Russell to be the maker of his own destiny.

“Upon arriving at a seat at the top table in 2022, Russell thought he’d be joining the sport’s No 1 powerhouse after eight straight team championships. But two years dogged down after failing miserably with their car design and aerodynamics saw Mercedes struggle, though Russell did seal his first F1 win in 2022 in Brazil.

“Yet you always felt as though Russell was teetering around Hamilton’s vast shadow at the Silver Arrows.”

More on Russell, and more winners and losers, below:

There is wild speculation around the Ferrari investment for Lewis Hamilton.

20 Minutes reports Hamilton will only earn €60m per season.

The sticking point in negotiations and the eventual divorce with Mercedes appears to be Hamilton’s role as an ambassador until 2035.

After this proposal was rejected, the French outlet reports John Elkann swooped in with a commitment to invest €400m in Hamilton’s business empire and projects.

Carlos Sainz insists he will “give his absolute best” this year after being dropped by Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton in 2025.

The shock news on Thursday sees seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton leave Mercedes after 11 years in which he won six world titles.

Hamilton, 39, has exercised a release clause in his two-year contract to leave the Silver Arrows and take up a “multi-year contract” with the Scuderia.

It leaves Sainz, who claimed Ferrari’s only victory last year in Singapore, somewhat in the lurch and without a drive for 2025.y

The Spaniard said in a brief statement on Twitter/X: “Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024.

“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.”

Lewis Hamilton could earn up to $100m per year from 2025 with new team Ferrari.

Formu1a.uno journalist Giuliano Duchessa reports the Briton could earn a huge pay rise from his current terms with Mercedes.

John Elkann’s relationship with Hamilton was decisive but Hamilton reportedly was convinced by technical guarantees for the future from the Scuderia.

The Ferrari engine in 2026, being created in Maranello was critical, with Elkann and Frederic Vasseur making guarantees over the technical aspects.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has no concerns over Lewis Hamilton’s integrity ahead of the seven-time world champion’s drawn out move to Ferrari.

Hamilton is entering the first year of a new two-year deal with Mercedes worth £100million, but shocked the world of Formula One by activating a release clause in the agreement to join Ferrari from 2025.

Wolff insisted he would not hold a grudge against Hamilton after the 39-year-old broke the news over breakfast at Wolff’s home in Oxford on Wednesday, and also has no concerns about the Briton sharing sensitive information with his future team.

Italian media outlets have compared Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari to when Cristiano Ronaldo moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018.

Hamilton has made the shock decision to join the iconic Italian team next year, leaving Mercedes after this year’s F1 season following 12 years and six world titles at the Silver Arrows.

The story broke in the Italian press early on Thursday morning and the excitement is palpable, with comparisons to Ronaldo’s £88m deal to join Juve six years ago.

Malaysia‘s state oil company Petroliam Nasional, or Petronas, is looking to bring back Formula One races to Malaysia in 2026, after a nine-year hiatus, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

Malaysia hosted a leg of the F1 world championship at its Sepang International Circuit (SIC) from 1999 but staged its last race in 2017, due to declining ticket sales and the rising costs of hosting the event.

Petronas, Malaysia’s only Fortune 500 company, won naming rights to the SIC for three years in October last year. The circuit continues to host MotoGP races and other motorsport events.

On Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur:

I have great respect for Fred, not only as a racing manager but as a long time friend. But when he took the role at Ferrari it’s clear he needed to do the best for them and take every opportunity in order to do that. So there’s no bad feeling towards Fred, trying to get the best employees.

It’s a cut throat environment. We’ve spoken numerous times. We’ve coordinated on our communications and I speak to him multiple times every week. You know, it’s a little bit like rugby, we punch each other on the nose, but we’re able to get off the pitch and have a respectful relationship.

As for Lewis, clearly the timing was surprising to us. But I guess what he tried to do is maybe give us a long time to decide what we want to do going forward to next year. I’ve no doubt that Fred will be able to have a very good relationship with Lewis as his boss. No doubt about that. They’ve known each other for 20 years.