Seeing the British driver in red is the most anticipated event of the 2025 season and we already know details about it
The Lewis Hamilton Ferrari contract situation is the biggest announcement in F1 in history. The Maranello based team has offered everything they could to get the 7-time world champion on board, we already know some of the biggest news about this once in a lifetime contract.
The most successful driver and the most successful team in the sport pairing together has given us plenty to talk about in pre-season. The 1st of February was a day to remember for F1 fans as the news sparkled early in the morning and did not get official confirmation until 8 pm CET. Ferrari launched a brief press note without much detail for the announcement.
Lewis Hamilton will become one of the highest paid athletes in the world
The big number, reported by Italian journalist Giuliano Duchesa, between salary, sponsors, image rights, bonuses and more – is around 100 million dollars a year. This includes also support for Lewis Hamilton‘s projects such as his charity Mission 44. CEO of Ferrari, John Elkann has also offered to create an investment fund via Ferrari’s parent brand Exor, worth over $272m, where Hamilton would serve as an ambassador.
Mission 44 describes itself as “a charitable foundation that supports bold organisations, leaders and ideas to reimagine the future and empower young people from underserved communities.” this is the biggest side-project the British driver is part of and obviously it was going to be part of his contract.
F1‘s social media community was shocked by the news
The official F1 Twitter(X) and Instagram accounts posted the news with the news Ferrari driver lineup for 2025 as soon as they were confirmed. The post achieved 80k Retweets and 300k likes on Twitter and an amazing 4.2 million likes on Instagram. Those numbers beat by a long distance the official publications of any of the Max Verstappen world champion posts.
Mercedes was not expecting the Lewis Hamilton Ferrari news
Toto Wolff, head of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team declared that the news shocked the team. The day the rumors began the team summoned an emergency meeting at the Brackley factory. The meeting took part at 2 pm and it was a confirmation for a lot of journalists about the news.
Wolff now has the mission to find a driver to fill Lewis Hamilton‘s seat. He already stated George Russell was going to be the new leader of the team, which leaves a clue of where the team’s direction could go.
The arrival of a top driver seems difficult. Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc have signed renewals with their teams, and seem to be in good harmony. Although Toto Wolff‘s men may be trying to ‘catch’ some of the drivers who, even with a current contract, have an exit clause that they can take advantage of. That is what Lewis Hamilton did.
In any case, one of the least troubling options would be to sign a driver who ends his contract in 2024. Sainz and Pérez have not renewed contracts with their teams, and it has already been confirmed that the Spaniard will not be at Ferrari for the next year. Except for a surprise, ‘Checo’ also has one foot outside the current Constructors’ champion team. This leaves them as two of the ‘best placed’ drivers to replace Hamilton.
Brackley‘s staff like race engineer Peter Bonnington “Bono” might join Hamilton in Maranello
Well known by F1 and Mercedes fans Peter Bonnington and Andrew Shovlin might be the biggest names that could leave the team together with the 7-time world champion. Team boss Toto Wolff recognizes the possible departure of Bonnington to Ferrari with Hamilton. The departure of a driver along with his track engineer is a case that has already occurred more than once in Formula 1 and therefore, the Austrian affirms that they will deal with it internally in the coming months. “I think it’s a topic that we all have to discuss in the months to come. I’ve already spoken to Bono and when I told him, he asked me if it was April 1st yet. It’s something we have to talk about in the future,” Wolff acknowledged in an interview with Sky Sports.
Hamilton would like to take with him to Italy two very important people for him and the Silver Arrows brand as a whole in recent years, such as ‘Bono‘ himself and Andrew Shovlin. However, doubts about a possible change of country, language and culture are more than present in both engineers, according to Motorsport Italia.
If they both say yes, Hamilton would carry out a maneuver very similar to that of Michael Schumacher when he signed for Ferrari. The German driver convinced Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne to go with him from Enstone, home of the former Benetton team, to Maranello. The British would serve as technical director, and the South African, as head of design, they would end up having a key role, along with Jean Todt, in the glory years of the Kaiser dressed in red.
The Silver Arrows might try to make a statement with their driver of choice
An option many F1 fans talk about is the effect of getting Fernando Alonso onboard. Apart from Lewis and Max, he is also a world champion caliber driver and it would be a way for the team to heal their damaged pride after this event. However, Fernando Alonso seems to be very comfortable in the Aston Martin project and looks like he wants to stay there.
According to Autosport, Toto Wolff declared this could be an opportunity for the team to “do something bold”. For some fans, this is where Andrea Kimi Antonelli comes as an option. The young Italian will race in Formula 2 this season. It is obvious that the young man will need time to join Mercedes, but a driver with his talent could serve to accompany George Russell even in his rookie season. In time he will be ready to make the leap to the Great Circus if his F2 results are good. In fact, Toto Wolff himself has stated that he has a great future ahead of him and that it is one of his long-term ‘promises’.
We have yet to see what the F1 team car launches and the 2025 driver market could bring. This was surely the first move of what already promised to be a really interesting “silly season” for F1 fans.
Guillermo Lorenzo Manzano
