It’s a somewhat rainy Thursday morning in early February in Glasgow. I make my usual walk to my Thursday morning lecture whilst listening to an old episode of my favourite podcast that I hadn’t listened to before (the Socially Distant Sports Bar if anyone’s interested), I get to the lecture theatre, take a seat, and have a look at my phone because I’ve still got 10 minutes or so before my class starts, everything is normal. I check Twitter and see something an outlet has tweeted about Lewis Hamilton supposedly being in talks with Ferrari, ‘that would be pretty cool, but I can’t see it happening’ I think to myself. 25 minutes later the Sky Sports notification flashes up confirming that he will be driving for Ferrari from 2025, making him the first Brit to drive for The Prancing Horse since Eddie Irvine. All of a sudden, my head is on Mars, I can’t concentrate on what’s going on in my lecture, media and communications research methods all of a sudden isn’t important, and the world will never ever be the same again. This one move has completely rocked the world of motorsport. One of the greatest, or arguably the greatest driver of all time signing with the sport’s most successful team and one of the most recognisable brands on the planet. Where do I even start to try and cover this one?

No matter what business happens in the final few hours of the January transfer window, this will undoubtedly be the biggest move of the day. There’s always been talk about how maybe, maybe, this move could end up happening one day. Whispers about how Hamilton wanted to move to Ferrari one day and that the team were big fans of his never went away, but surely nothing would ever come from it. Would it? There were some rumours in the early 2010s and even ahead of the 2024 season that Lewis could end up at Ferrari, but they never materialised. The mutual interest has been there for a while, and given Hamilton’s relationship with Ferrari Team Principle, Fred Vasseur, after working together in GP2 (now known as F2), it felt like if it was ever going to happen then it would be now. But despite all of that, it just seemed like it never would. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are a driver-team partnership that’s become one of the most iconic in the history of the sport. The success the two have had together has been off the scale. Lewis said recently how Mercedes is home for him, and everyone just assumed that the Silver Arrows would be the team that he stays with until the day he retires. I know I’ve said it a few times, but I can’t underestimate how seismic this move is in the world of motorsport. For non-F1 fans, this is like Mo Salah signing for Manchester City, Warren Gatland taking the England rugby head coach job, Patrick Mahomes ditching Kansas City for the New England Patriots, LeBron James signing with the Los Angeles Clippers (maybe, I don’t know I don’t watch basketball). I could go on all day with the comparisons, but make no mistake about it… This. Is. Big.

After the initial shock passed (slightly, if I’m being honest I’m still trying to process it fully), all I could think was poor Carlos Sainz. He’s hardly put a foot wrong in his time at Ferrari and was the only non-Red Bull driver to actually win a race last year. 16 podiums and 2 wins in three seasons as a second driver? That’s not a record to be sniffed at in the slightest. But motorsport is a brutal and cut-throat business, and when a driver of Lewis Hamilton’s stature becomes available you can’t pass up on the opportunity. And despite the situation, I’m beyond confident that Carlos will be absolutely fine. He will 100% be on the grid in some capacity in 2025, there’s no way he can’t be. Quite where I’m not too sure yet, but I wouldn’t rule out a Red Bull reunion. The general feeling in the rumour mill is that Sergio Perez is on borrowed time at Red Bull with the team keeping a close eye on Daniel Ricciardo’s 2024 season at Racing Bulls (terrible name, just rebrand them back to Toro Rosso) and treating that as an audition per se for Checo’s seat in 2025. Now? I think I’d take a punt on Sainz for that second Red Bull seat should it become available. Because what’s there to lose? Goes well then it looks like an absolute masterstroke from Red Bull, goes poorly then swap Ricciardo and Sainz for 2026 (or mid-way through 2025 as Red Bull have been historically brutal like that). Carlos was never given an opportunity to race for the team after being in the Red Bull Junior program, why not let him have a shot at it? You know he’s going to deliver results as he’s done it at McLaren and Ferrari, and in a much better car it would immediately put him into world championship contention.

This is an enormous statement from Ferrari, and from 2025 onward surely this puts them into Constructors’ and World Drivers’ Championship winners’ territory. It’s been a bumpy ride for the Italian outfit in recent times but now they’ll have two of the best drivers on the planet racing for their team in the form of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Hamilton will be desperate to win an eighth world title and many fans had hoped it would come at Mercedes but in their fairly torrid last two seasons it hasn’t even looked close to happening. Ferrari haven’t had much better of a time themselves which has been incredibly disappointing, especially with how promising it looked at the beginning of the 2022 season when they got the 1-2 in Bahrain with Leclerc winning and Sainz coming second. Hamilton is arguably taking a bit of a gamble with the move, he’s not getting any younger and that chance of an 8^th world title will only decrease as the seasons go on, but my god what a massive opportunity this is. If there’s any place where Lewis could get back to his best and compete for wins and podiums every week, then surely it has to be at Ferrari. They must have something major in the pipeline to tempt him away from Mercedes, and that alone makes me excited. Imagine if it’s Lewis Hamilton who is the driver to bring Ferrari back to Constructors’ Championship glory, and in doing so wins his 8^th World Drivers’ Championship. Tell me you don’t want to see that! It’s almost written in the stars, almost too perfect.

Another dynamic I’m looking forward to is how Hamilton and Leclerc will work together as teammates. Charles has already raced with one of the all-time greats at Ferrari with 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis has raced with former world champions Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, and Nico Rosberg throughout his career, but this feels like it’s almost a step above again for both. Charles will be competing with arguably the greatest to ever step foot in the sport, and Lewis will be teammates with a future multiple time world champion who’s just waiting for the right car to blow the field away with his pure talent. It’s almost impossible to predict who will be the first and second driver here. On one hand you have the man who has been the face of Ferrari F1 for years and will continue to be the face of Ferrari F1 for years, and on the other you have the greatest to ever race in Formula 1 (in my opinion, please don’t attack me). It will be really interesting to see how Ferrari handle this, because there’s not really a ‘second driver’ per se in that duo. Both of their stocks are enormous, on the track and off it, meaning everyone will have their eyes on Ferrari every weekend.

Away from Ferrari, the huge question surrounding this is where do Mercedes go from here? Who do you choose to replace Lewis Hamilton? The truth is, you can’t. 12 years, 6 World Drivers’ Championship titles, 8 Constructors’ Championship titles, 82 wins, 148 podium finishes, and an eye-watering 3,726.5 career points and counting at Mercedes alone is a hell of a legacy, and maybe one we’ll never see in Formula 1 again. It’s greatness personified, and for Hamilton and Mercedes to have competed at that high a level so consistently for so long makes it easily one of the most incredible periods of domination in the history of sport as a whole. That being said, this can be an incredibly exciting opportunity for Mercedes in a post-Hamilton era. I’d imagine that George Russell will be promoted to the main driver position. He may have his critics as a result of his aggressive driving style but all of history’s great drivers have had that aggressive edge to them. If you want to win races and championships, you need to be able to push yourself and your car to the absolute limit. In terms of a teammate, I’d love to see a rookie or younger driver in the car. Almost a passing of the torch from one great to a potential future great. Mick Schumacher is already the reserve driver for Mercedes, so you’d think that his hat is already in the ring, but if the team want to look elsewhere then there’s plenty of talent. Maybe they could sneak someone from the Ferrari setup in the form of last year’s F2 Champion and in my opinion a future F1 World Champion, Theo Pourchaire. Myself and many others have been waxed lyrical about the Frenchman for years, and I even touted him for that Mercedes spot if Hamilton retired at the end of the 2022 season. There’s no doubt in my mind that he would take to F1 like a duck to water the same way that Oscar Piastri has at McLaren, and I’m desperate to see him on the grid sooner rather than later. Or perhaps, and this is just for me, we see Kimi Antonelli in the seat. Yes, he’s incredibly young, and yes, he would have had only one season in F2 by the time it comes to 2025, but just imagine it. There would understandably be questions about whether he would be ready, but my god the kid has talent. To be able to skip F3 for F2 to sign with Prema Racing shows that you have to be pretty special, and I believe he’s good enough to be right in the mix for the F2 championship at just 17 years old. If he has the Super License and is a part of the Mercedes Junior Team setup, then surely the Silver Arrows don’t hold off for too long and risk losing him. Toto Wolff is a huge fan of his, so why not put his trust in the young Italian?

The 1^st of February 2024 will be a day etched in motorsport history forever. Getting that notification felt like one of those “where were you when you found out” sporting moments. It’s marked the ending of an incredible chapter in the history of Formula 1, and the start of an unbelievably exciting one. Just the small matter of the 2024 season to get through first…