Formula One star Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari

British Formula One star Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes and join Ferrari for the 2025 season, Sky Sports News understands.

It is understood the Mercedes factory are to be briefed by the chief executive of the team, Toto Wolff, ahead of a formal announcement later today.

Hamilton was linked to Ferrari for 2024, but he signed a two-year contract worth £100m last summer to stay until the end of 2025.

As part of the deal, it is understood the seven-time world champion is eligible to leave Mercedes at the end of the year.

He is therefore expected to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari.

Sainz’s contract due to expire at the end of 2024, while Ferrari’s other driver, Charles Leclerc, recently agreed a new long-term deal.

Before his current contract was signed, Hamilton told ESPN in May 2023 that he be “lying” if he said he had “never thought about ending my career anywhere else”.

“I thought about and watched the Ferrari drivers on the screens at the track and of course you wonder what it would be like to be in red,” he added.

But he went on to say Mercedes is “home” and that he is happy where he is.

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The move would end an extraordinarily successful partnership, with Hamilton winning six world titles in the space of seven years from 2014-20.

However, Mercedes have since fallen off the pace and Hamilton has not won a race since 2021.

Neither Mercedes nor Ferrari have commented.

Before his stint with Mercedes, the 39-year-old raced for McLaren.

The new F1 season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 28 February.