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

Lewis Hamilton has stunned Mercedes and the world of Formula 1 by joining Ferrari for the 2025 season.

The seven-time F1 world champion, who joined Mercedes in 2013, signed a new two-year deal last summer at the Silver Arrows but has had a shock change of heart as he strives for a record-breaking eighth title in the twilight of his career.

Hamilton, who has signed a “multi-year contract”, will race alongside Charles Leclerc and replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari next year, with the Spaniard out of contract at the iconic Italian team at the end of 2024 and now looking for a new team.

Lewis Hamilton has brought back “long term friend” Marc Hynes to his support team for the 2024 F1 season.

Hamilton is eyeing a return to form this year having not won a race for more than two years, with his last victory coming in Saudi Arabia in December 2021. The Brit’s time working with long-term performance coach Angela Cullen ended last March.

Max Verstappen has won the last three world championships but Hynes – who worked with Hamilton from 2016-2021, when the Brit won four of his seven titles – has been brought back into the frame by the Mercedes driver to focus “solely on racing activities.”

So, what have the key parties said about Hamilton’s move to the prancing horse? Here’s what the man himself wrote in the official announcement.

Lewis Hamilton said: “I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together. Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old.

“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 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% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has had his say on Hamilton’s departure.

“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; 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 accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”

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, Ferrari. Picture it for a moment: Hamilton, a man who transcends Formula One and whose hunger for success is unabated, glistening in the sun of the famous scarlet red. The pure romanticism and prestige of such a partnership – between F1’s most famous driver and the sport’s most iconic team – has been mooted for years. Until now, flirtations between driver and team seemed insincere. Just fantasy. Surely, given Hamilton’s repeated commitment to Mercedes and a new two-year contract, a last dance with the prancing horse would not materialise? Surely… not?

But now we know: both parties simply could not resist.

On football’s transfer deadline day, Formula One ruffled the most shocking of feathers with the news that Hamilton – Mercedes’ star man for 11 years, world champion in six of those – will join the legendary Scuderia next year on a multi-year contract. A source told The Independent that Hamilton informed Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on Wednesday night of his decision to move, simply insisting he wishes to try something new. The 39-year-old has a one-year break clause in his new deal, which he has chosen to exercise in search of this “new challenge.” And, out of nothing, the 2024 season which looked so stale (no new drivers, no new races), and with a runaway favourite in Red Bull, has been sparked into life. A firework F1 badly needed.