Lewis Hamilton has officially left Mercedes and is now a Ferrari Formula 1 driver as he looks to bounce back after the worst season of the seven-time champion’s career yet.
The 39-year-old formally started his new adventure as a Scuderia star on Wednesday at the turn of the year. Hamilton stunned the world 11 months ago when he announced the Briton was to leave Mercedes to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari from the 2025 Formula 1 campaign.
Mercedes refused to release Hamilton from his contract before 2024 came to a close to hold his final sponsorship commitments, rather than allow the Stevenage native to test for Ferrari after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. But, after 11 seasons in silver, Hamilton will now race in red.
George Russell plays down F1’s regulations influencing his qualifying head-to-head with Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton will hope joining Charles Leclerc in Maranello allows the most-successful F1 driver of all-time to get his career back on track after three bleak years for Mercedes following the re-introduction of ground-effect cars in 2022. The 2024 season was even his worst year yet.
Never before 2024 had Hamilton finished a Formula 1 season as low in the drivers’ standings as P7, coming one spot and 22 points behind Mercedes teammate George Russell. The 2024 term also saw Hamilton lose a qualifying head-to-head to his teammate for the second time.
READ MORE: F1 2024 teammate head-to-head battles including race, Sprint and qualifying
Only in 2014 when Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton 12-7 in their head-to-head at Mercedes had the Briton lost out to a teammate in qualifying over any season since his debut in 2007 until Russell beat him with a 18-6 record in 2024. But Russell has played down a potential reason.
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin suggested last July that Hamilton’s struggles with their W15 car in qualifying were from his driving style not suiting the ground-effect regulations. Yet Russell has now suggested that the regulations make little difference.
Russell explained to Motorsport.com: “I think probably my natural driving style has worked well in these cars. But, equally, my qualifying record against my teammates in the previous generation was good and in every category, my qualifying records have been strong.
“I don’t think there’s anything particular with this generation. But, obviously, Lewis has been my toughest teammate. So, I think that’s why it’s been highlighted a bit more.”
Lewis Hamilton struggled to adapt to ground-effect F1 cars at Mercedes
After enduring his first-ever winless seasons in 2022 and 2023 as Mercedes struggled to get to grips with the ground-effect regulations, Hamilton won his record ninth British Grand Prix and also inherited the win after Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix in 2024.
But his struggles with Mercedes’ car continued throughout the season to leave Hamilton, by the end, desperate for 2024 to be over and to join Ferrari. Now, the Briton gets his wish and will hope the issues Hamilton endured with Mercedes’ car do not continue now with Ferrari.
READ MORE: The five worst moments of Lewis Hamilton’s career in Formula 1
Marc Priestley has also indicated that Hamilton’s driving style doesn’t suit the ground-effect regulations in the same way that Daniel Ricciardo struggled and was, ultimately, sent into his Formula 1 retirement in 2024. Red Bull axed the Australian from the RB squad in September.
Priestley, who was a mechanic for McLaren when the Briton won his first title in 2008, made that statement after Hamilton likened Mercedes’ car to ‘a plank of wood’ after the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The seven-time champion had more than only one race to forget in Brazil.
Hamilton felt Mercedes’ car at Interlagos, with which teammate Russell contended for a win before a red flag aided Max Verstappen’s charge from P17 to win the Sao Paulo GP, had ‘the worst ride definitely that we’ve ever had’ after struggling with the W15’s stiffness in corners.
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