https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/mercedes-amg-f1-lewis-to-part-ways
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton will part ways at the end of the 2024 season. Lewis has activated a release option in the contract so this season will be his last driving for the team
Either Ferrari have shown him something special, or Mercedes are really underwhelming him with whatevers in the pipeline. Possibly both.
I can't believe it's purely a money thing. Lewis is surely still chasing another title above all else?
Ferrari is the place where former world champions go to become old and bitter wearing red jumpsuits. It’s not the place where you have a great final act to your sport career.
And I say this as a life long Ferrari fan.
Just look at Seb. Since he left Ferrari he looks like he’s having fun again!
I think Seb was having fun because he no longer felt stressed about trying to win a world championship. His new focus was to do as well as possible, but not necessarily the best.
Absolutely. But that’s part and parcel of the Ferrari curse. Every time it’s “this is going to be the year” and then it’s not. It’s very much not.
Still, 🐎
That’s what I think too. It’s either that or just wanting to race in Red for a year or two before retirement.
I think we’ll know pretty quickly if the Merc is a shitbox next year, which will explain a lot.
I guess that his favourite engineer leaving for Ferrari and some simulator time convinced him...
Merc head of vehicle performance loic something is his name I think. Apparently him and Hamilton agreed that merc was taking the car in the wrong direction.
Well, I didn't expect this headline this season... Maybe he knows more than we do, akin to his move to mercedes, but I can't see how this improves his chances of another title.
Really not a fan of the brand-first, almost cult-like mentality of Ferrari, and can't imagine things will be as easy going as with Mercedes, despite Lewis' credentials. Seems exciting still, but we'll see.
I’m gonna guess it’s a massive bag. And he’s got enough money anyways that he probably doesn’t care too much.
That's what's strange to me, I'm very curious what he saw at Ferrari that Mercedes couldn't do. Money aside, as he has enough like you said, what else could have possibly lure him.
Maybe he really wanted a red racing suit?
For most F1 drivers Ferrari just has this special pull. Lewis has always admitted how highly he regards Ferrari, even when they were fierce rivals.
I have to imagine the W15 is going to be a shitbox. He’s gotta have some reason to be jumping ship, when it was previously thought he’d retire at Mercedes.
Merc's head engineer, Loic Serra, left Merc for Ferrari. Hami and him have been good pals and on the same page a long time. I'm sure that matters.
I wonder if he waited till the first sim session was over, or one-handed it while negotiating with Ferrari in the sim.
He's rich so probably Bluetooth during the sim session, or Bono doing switch board duty on the radio.
Imagine that, "hey, Lewis, we don't like all this Andretti talk in the press, could you switch teams? Go to Ferrari, maybe? That ought to do the trick".
More like FOM knew the Lewis announcement was imminent and jumped the gun right before it. It really isn't that far fetched.
It's real though. And the Andretti debacle has been going on for years now. They're not getting a team.
Insane, I never thought this would happen. It's a shame that his career is over now, I still had some hopes for him to win some more races
And what if we compare over a longer time scale than that one specific year? Ferrari definitely has a reputation of somewhere that former champions go to retire
True. Maybe he believes he can mimic what Michael did though. If he does manage to win, that'd certainly cement his legacy as the goat. And since we're looking at past years, let's not forget how Merc fumbled the new regs though while Ferrari kinda came out the gate running until Newey pulled a rocket out of his ass, again.
Those first few new regs races were so exciting. Ferrari seemed to be dominating and I feel like I remember Red Bull had really poor reliability the first few races
I feel like I remember Red Bull had really poor reliability the first few races
Yeah but pace wise Ferrari was very close to red bull as well which resulted in us getting great battles in Bahrain, jeddah, Miami, Canada and even in the imola sprint
People are telling me he's linked to Audi so he might end up taking either Bottas or Zhou's Sauber seat (unsure who they'd let go tbh)
What about pourchaire. I thought Zhou was only keeping the seat warm until Theo stepped up which he has done by winning the F2 title.
I like Theo and I think he would be a great addition to the grid but his f2 stint was not dominant. He's doing the Gasly super formula route this year I think, with Iwasa.
Maybe they'll do a full driver swap and drop both Zhou and Bottas for Sainz and Pourchaire??
Well considering Mick got a shot at f1, pourchaire should as well. He was top 2 in both years of f2. Not everybody can be a leclerc, Russell or piastri and absolutely annihilate the competition. I think Theo is more than good enough for the grid
Mixed feelings about drugo. He had a middling f2 stint before suddenly blitzing the field. Still don't know how good he is
He is not that good IMO! Seems like a lovely guy but in his winning f2 season he had the lucky engine and no real competition, sorry to say
It’s crazy how fast Mercedes fell off. For awhile they were dominating and now suddenly they’ve turned to shit. All under the same driver.
Reminds me of Red Bull back when Vettel was there.
They were the definitive constructors champ and now they barely beat Ferrari to second place. Also, they actually lost to Ferrari the year before). And that's just numbers. If you look at the last races of the season you'll be hard pressed to put merc car in the top 3. RB was clear first, McLaren was clear second and Ferrari was marginally better than Merc.
I wouldn't be surprised if this year Merc is struggling to stay in the top 3
I mean I wonder if the style of car just doesn’t work for Hamilton’s driving style, so why not pursue another team and see if that changes anything if you’re not comfortable in the car you have anyway?
Gonna be more awkward if Merc comes out strong this year and Lewis is already slated to leave.