Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari in 2025

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton will race for Ferrari from the 2025 season after nearly 20 years – and 103 Grand Prix wins – in Mercedes-powered cars.

Hamilton and Ferrari have confirmed reports out of Italy earlier this week of what is likely one of Formula One's most significant driver transfers of all time, in the tie-up between its most successful driver and team.

The British driver will partner five-time Grand Prix winner from Monaco, Charles Leclerc (below), who last week signed a multi-year contract to continue with the Scuderia Ferrari team for "several more seasons".

Late last year Hamilton signed a two-year deal to remain with Mercedes for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but it appears there was an escape clause in his contract that has allowed him to leave early – after 12 years with the German giant.

He will replace Spain's Carlos Sainz, whose contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of this year. Hamilton is said to have a "multi-year contract" with Ferrari.

Hamilton is the most successful driver in Formula One history, with more Grand Prix wins (103) and pole positions (104) than any other driver – and seven World Drivers' Championships, tied with Michael Schumacher.

Conversely, Schumacher, who spent most of his career as Ferrari's championship driver, famously returned to F1 from retirement to drive for Mercedes.

Meanwhile Ferrari remains F1's most successful constructor, winning 16 championships since 1961 – though its most recent was back in 2008, the same year Hamilton pipped Ferrari driver Felipe Massa to claim his first World Drivers' Championship title by a single point.

By 2025 Hamilton will have spent all of his 18 years in Formula One driving a Mercedes-powered car – six with McLaren, which used Mercedes engines, and 12 with the factory Mercedes team.

Six of Hamilton's seven World Drivers' Championship titles have been with the factory squad, but since the switch to new Formula One regulations in 2022 – with new car designs designed to promote closer racing – Mercedes has not been able to replicate its prior success.

Mercedes-AMG finished third in the standings in 2022 – and second in 2023 – after winning the Constructors' Championship for the previous eight years in a row.

Hamilton has not won a Grand Prix since the penultimate race in 2021, amid the dominance of Red Bull Racing and Dutch driver Max Verstappen – who have won all of the past three World Drivers' Championships and two World Constructors' Championships.

Rumours have long swirled of Hamilton being in talks with Ferrari – typically towards the end of a given contract with Mercedes – however he has never made the switch, likely given the championship-winning abilities of the German outfit's car.

The British ace turned 39 last month, and is the second-oldest driver on the 2024 Formula One grid, behind 42-year-old, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who is preparing to spend his 22nd season in F1 with Aston Martin.