Mark Hughes' theory for why Mercedes lost Hamilton.
It’s now clear that Ferrari was able to offer Hamilton a longer-term commitment than Mercedes, which agreed a two-year deal with the second year as an option (a 1 + 1).
Feb 2, 2024
by Mark Hughes
The Race

Let’s just suppose that when Wolff and Hamilton were discussing their contract that Wolff had revealed that the long-term plan was to place Antonelli at Williams for a year or two and then if all went well to bring him into the main team?

As a way of future-proofing. Hamilton’s 1+1 would dovetail in with this nicely. We don’t know if Wolff did discuss this scenario, of course. But he and Hamilton are close, have achieved so much together, that it would be quite in character for such an open discussion to have taken place between them.

Let’s then imagine what Hamilton’s thought processes may have been if he had indeed received that information from his boss and friend. It would have been totally logical if he had pondered: ‘I may as well leave after year one, as that’s my final chance of the Ferrari gig – and there may not be anything for me here in ’26.’ So in nudging Hamilton towards retirement, might Wolff have instead nudged him early into leaving for one of Mercedes' key rivals?

‘Theory for why Mercedes lost Hamilton’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/m...errari-theory/


An inspired decision or risky move? Our writers give their take on Hamilton's shock Ferrari switch
02 February 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Chris Medland, Special Contributor: Like everyone in the F1 world, this is a move that caught me completely by surprise. The way Hamilton had previously spoken about his future with Mercedes – even beyond racing in F1 – had just led me to believe it’s where he’d end his career. I’ll admit first whispers didn’t even have me taking it totally seriously at first…

Mark Hughes, Special Contributor: I think this move illustrates just how brilliantly ruthless the F1 mentality can be and how that injects a volatility which is part of F1 DNA. In a way it's a 'Hollywood' move, the bringing together of the two highest-profile entities in F1 with all the commercial implications that carries.

David Tremayne, Hall of Fame F1 Journalist: I’m one of the last people to mention the words ‘career suicide’ to Lewis Hamilton when he thinks of changing teams, as he is all too happy to remind those of us who suggested a switch from McLaren to Mercedes for 2013 was, at the very least, perhaps unwise…

‘James Hinchcliffe, IndyCar Race Winner and Analyst, Mike Seymour, Staff Writer’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...k689FqpiK.html


What we learned from Wolff's debrief on Hamilton's Ferrari move.
The Race was present to get Wolff’s reaction, establish key details like the timeline that played out, ask what Hamilton’s rationale was, and find out what Mercedes does next.
Feb 2, 2024
by Scott Mitchell-Malm,
Valentin Khorounzhiy
The Race

TIMING A 'SURPRISE': “We got together for a coffee in my place in Oxford, and [ahead of] basically him returning to the factory, and he said to me he had decided to race for Ferrari in 2025,” said Wolff. “That was basically it. Then we had a good hour of conversation.”
HAMILTON NEEDED A CHANGE: Wolff hinted at a couple of firm reasons: the length of the contract on offer from Ferrari, for one, and the fact Hamilton simply needed a change.

WOLFF STOIC – MOSTLY: There were inevitably a couple of glimpses of how he really felt underneath - and he even said that "in the future we will discuss whether this could have been done in a different way".
MERCEDES DIDN'T WANT MORE THAN TWO YEARS: To reiterate, Mercedes had announced Hamilton as being retained on a 'two-year deal'. The quote marks there are because a two-year deal is for two years, and this one... is, in the end, not.

‘Wolff’s reaction’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/t...at-we-learned/


Four big reasons why Lewis Hamilton ditched Mercedes for Ferrari
01 Feb 2024 12:40 PM
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari has ended the most successful driver/team partnership in F1 history, so why would he do it?
Has Lewis Hamilton lost faith in Mercedes? Hamilton is currently without a win in Formula 1 since the tail-end of that tumultuous 2021 season, with Mercedes having fallen off the boil at the start of the new ground-effect regulations.

Is it one last roll of the dice for Lewis Hamilton? At the end of the day, Hamilton is much, much closer to the end of his career than the start, having just turned 39. By 2026, Hamilton will have turned 41. While Fernando Alonso has proven age doesn’t necessarily mean anything anymore, history goes against Hamilton here.

A chance to team up again with Fred Vasseur: A move to Ferrari means partnering up with Fred Vasseur again, a boss with whom Hamilton has enjoyed great success in the past.
The allure of the Scuderia, and doing what Ayrton Senna couldn’t: Regardless of their competitive prowess in any given year, Ferrari continues to have a hold over drivers. As the only team to have been on the F1 grid since the very first year of the championship, nearly all the greatest drivers have come through their doors.

‘Four big reasons’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/why-le...-from-mercedes


How Exactly Is This Whole Lewis Hamilton And Ferrari Thing Going To Work?
17:51 Fri, 02 Feb 2024
By Kathryn Xu
Defector

All roads lead to Maranello. That's a suitably ominous statement to contextualize the rest of the news, which is that Lewis Hamilton, after exercising a release option in his contract, will be leaving Mercedes after the 2024 season to join Ferrari on a multi-year deal. As tampering is famously a North American invention, Hamilton continues the cycle of drivers signing with Ferrari before their previous contract fully expired—and Carlos Sainz Jr. will exit the team at the end of the 2024 season, similar to how Sebastian Vettel left in 2020.

The timing is just precise enough that it's easy to crack jokes about how Hamilton saw Mercedes' 2024 car and sprinted away as fast as he possibly could. It's also the most logical explanation for a decision that was genuinely unimaginable back in 2020, when Hamilton and Mercedes seemed inseparable: Two years of wasted development on the zero-pod concept were simply two years too many, especially with a strict spending cap. Mercedes managed to eke out a second-place finish in the constructor championship over Ferrari last year (three points!), but they got there out of consistency and not pace.

After 11 seasons with Mercedes Hamilton is hungry for an eighth championship. He's also 39 years old, and if the upcoming 2026 engine regulation changes will make picking a team a gamble, he may as well get himself one year at a non-Mercedes team before then, especially one who reportedly poached an engineer he trusted. And why not reunite with Fred Vasseur, who ran the ART Grand Prix team that Hamilton won GP2 with, way back in 2006?

‘How Exactly Is This Thing Going To Work?’

https://defector.com/how-exactly-is-...-going-to-work


Details of Lewis Hamilton's contract with Ferrari emerge online including 'special clause'
Published 15:34, 02 February 2024 GMT
Ryan Smart
SPORTbible

French outlet Sportune report that the deal with Ferrari is worth $80 million per year, with $20 million of that sum given in bonuses 'for the benefit of' Hamilton's foundation, which would put him in line with what Red Bull's Max Verstappen is earning. Italian outlet Formu1a.uno add that Hamilton's overall earnings will be made up from a combination of salary, sponsors, image rights, bonuses and more. They claim that the total figure will be around $100 million per year.

The same outlet claims that Hamilton was given technical guarantees as a clause during contract negotiations which convinced him to sign, mainly surrounding the engine that Ferrari are developing to meet the new technical regulations in 2026. Forbes reported in November that Hamilton had earned a salary of $55 million (around £43.4 million) at Mercedes in 2023, but with no bonus listed.

‘Details of contract with Ferrari emerge’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/lewis-...91663-20240202