Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes after ‘amazing 11 years’ and move to Ferrari
F1 star Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes at the end of the upcoming season and join Ferrari in 2025.
“I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together,” the 39-year-old British driver said in a statement.
“Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old.
“It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.
“But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge.”
Ferrari confirmed on X that he would join “on a multi-year contract” in 2025 – fans seemed to approve, with 176,000 likes in the first 40 minutes.
The seven-time champion is expected to replace Carlos Sainz at the iconic Italian team.
Sainz’s contract expires at the end of 2024, while Ferrari’s other driver, Charles Leclerc, recently agreed a new long-term deal.
Hamilton had previously been linked with Ferrari, but signed a two-year contract worth £100m last summer to stay at Mercedes.
The move from Mercedes ends an extraordinary partnership, with Hamilton winning six world titles between 2014 to 2020.
However, Mercedes have since fallen off the pace and he hasn’t won a race since 2021.
The team said Hamilton had triggered a release clause included in the deal he signed last year.
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Pic: Reuters
The boss of Mercedes F1, Toto Wolff, said the link-up had been the most successful team-driver partnership the sport had ever seen.
“However, we knew our partnership would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come,” said Wolff.
“We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate.
“But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
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Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur and Lewis Hamilton. Pic: XBR/Alamy
Hamilton said in his statement he would be “forever grateful” for Mercedes’ “incredible support” and Wolff’s friendship and leadership.
“I am 100% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember,” he added.
The new season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 28 February.
‘Dreams’ of being in red
Hamilton told ESPN last year he would 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.
Damon Hill with Hamilton. Pic: Reuters
Former world champion Damon Hill said Hamilton was likely to still be smarting from the 2021 season, when he lost the lead in the last moments of the final race – and with it the title – after a controversial restart.
Hill told Sky that Hamilton had “been licking his wounds”.
“Maybe he didn’t think there were strong enough signs from Mercedes that they’d solved their problems, that they were going to give him an all-conquering car,” said Hill.
“He doesn’t want to hang around to make up numbers.
“Maybe Ferrari is just that added spice that you need to motivate yourself one more time for another last push at it – and what a way to go out if you’re with Ferrari.”
Asked if the move would improve his chances of winning another title, Hill said that might not be the point.
“If Ferrari’s chances are as good as Mercedes’, then why not Ferrari? Ferrari has that cachet,” he said.
“It’s also something different, there’s always a spring in your step if you change to a new team, the optimism of going somewhere different”.
Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.
It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.
However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.
Captain Virgil van Dijk (centre) celebrates. Pic: Reuters
Salah on his knees in celebration after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott (below) and Jarell Quansah celebrate after full-time. Pic: PA
Slot cheers after the full-time whistle. Pic: AP
In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.
The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.
But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.
“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas poses with a Premier League trophy cut out. Pic: Reuters
Manager Arne Slot and his team after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.
He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”
Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.
Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.
Mohamed Salah takes a selfie with fans after scouring the fourth Liverpool goal. Pic: AP
Fans at Anfield during the game. Pic: AP
Fans in the stands at Anfield before full-time. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.
It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.
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Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
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