Formula 1 (F1) is the highest level of open-wheeled auto racing. Each year 20 drivers compete in 23 races worldwide for a world championship title. Ten company teams have two drivers that compete in these races. There is also a Constructors competition, which focuses on the whole team, putting both driver’s points together.
Winning a world championship is every F1 driver’s dream: years of hard work paid off, fame, and of course the money. The prize money has many factors contributing to the amount depending on the team, driver and how well they performed.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most well-known F1 drivers, tied with Michael Schumacher with 7 championship titles. Hamilton started his F1 career in 2007 at age 22 with McLaren and moved to Mercedes, a high-level team, in 2013. He has been with Mercedes for 11 years, winning 66 races and all of his championship titles.
Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history, having broken many records such as most races won (103), most pole positions (104) and most podium finishes (197). One of his biggest accomplishments is that he is the first and only Black F1 driver to this day. His dedication and perseverance to motorsport has inspired many younger drivers.
Mercedes, under Team Principal Toto Wolff, has been regarded as a superior team since Hamilton joined, winning 82 races. But since 2022, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has taken the lead.
The Mercedes team has been struggling with their car since the 2022 season, when new regulations were set on the cars. However, that is not the only factor bringing Mercedes down.
Red Bull, led by Christian Horner, is another team that has shot up the ranks and won both the team title and driver title every year since 2021. One of the Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen, led the team to victory and a successful past 3 seasons.
While Mercedes has been struggling to hold its place as the best, Ferrari, another high-level team, has been improving, almost passing Mercedes in the 2023 season with only 3 points separating the teams.
Hamilton, at the age of 39 and wanting to retire having that 8th world title, has wanted one final win.
“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,” Hamilton said.
“But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge. I will be forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together.”
On Feb. 1, it was announced Hamilton would leave Mercedes and join Ferrari for the 2025 season. The news came as a shock to F1 fans, who were sure that Hamilton would stay with Mercedes, despite past rumors that he may sign with Ferrari.
With Hamilton’s bombshell move to Ferrari, Mercedes has 12 months to fill the spot of the 7-time world champion. There is much speculation about who is going to fill that spot, but none have been confirmed. For 2025, the top two drivers without a spot in their former teams are Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, who both had a strong 2023 racing year. Rumors about one of the two drivers joining Mercedes are a strong possibility.
Another rumor is that Sebastian Vettel will come out of retirement to join Mercedes. Vettel is the fourth-best driver in F1 history, having won four world championships in a row. In his 15-year F1 career, he drove with top teams like Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin. In interviews, Toto Wolff has mentioned that he has stayed in contact with Vettel and has talked about him coming out of retirement. But in other interviews, Toto has explained that Vettel decided to stop racing and that wasn’t going to change.
A third possibility is Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a driver for PREMA in F2, whom Mercedes has had an eye on for years. Although it is very unlikely that he will be promoted to F1 and join Mercedes for the 2025 season, he may be a strong candidate in future years.
What will come of Ferrari’s 2025 season? Hamilton will be partnered with Charles Leclerc, replacing Carlos Sainz. There is doubt about whether or not the two will work together well on the track, given that Leclerc has outpaced all his former teammates. Now that the 7-time world champion has arrived, Leclerc will likely be outshined by Hamilton. Competition between teammates in F1 has always been a problem during races, especially in Ferrari and Mercedes’s past. Ferrari has faced strategy issues in the past, stemming from miscommunication with the Team Principal and the engineers.
At the end of the 2022 season the Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, resigned from the position. His replacement was Alfa Romeo’s Team Principal, Fred Vasseur.
No matter what the outcome of the next few seasons of F1, Hamilton’s outstanding records will always be here. Whether Hamilton gets that 8th world record or not, he will forever be in F1 history as one of the best drivers in the world. The impact he has made and the people he has inspired will never be forgotten.
