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Shocking and sensational seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will be leaving Mercedes to replace Carlos Sainz for Ferrari next season.
After years of speculation that he might one day be able to race in red, it will finally happen in 2025.
The announcement means Hamilton will race for his third different team in his 19th season in the sport, having made his debut with McLaren in 2007.
But the British aren’t used to gambling, even if it embarrasses others.
The F1 paddock was shocked when he announced he was joining Mercedes for the 2013 season, with pundits questioning whether he had made a huge mistake. he didn’t.
But four years after winning his sixth title with Mercedes and seventh overall, Hamilton is back on the move, this time heading to Maranello.
In F1, world champions don’t often leave the team that won them the title, as it’s just too much of a risk not worth it. Just ask Sebastian Vettel.
The German, who most recently became world champion after moving from Red Bull to Ferrari in 2015, was unable to repeat his title-winning feat with the Scuderia.
And it’s rare for world champions to swap teams these days, when teams are keen to retain the talent they cultivate, often at considerable cost.
PlanetF1.com looks into the six-time world champion’s defection to a rival team.
Alain Prost – From McLaren to Ferrari
Alain Prost won the 1989 world title with McLaren, his third of four, but left the team at the end of the season, ending a bitter and spiteful partnership with Ayrton Senna.
Their penultimate race as teammates ended in a crash during a battle for the lead at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Prost retiring from the race and Senna having his marshals give him a push start.
Although he won on the road, he was later disqualified due to a chicane cut, with Senna lamenting “championship manipulation”.
It was the final salvo in a strained relationship as team-mates, with Prost leaving McLaren for Ferrari. However, that didn’t last long, and he was fired a year later for publicly criticizing the team.
Ayrton Senna – From McLaren to Williams
Although he won his third Drivers’ Championship title with McLaren in 1991, the Woking team’s results the following season were poor, with Senna winning just three Grands Prix.
It was a disappointing 4th place against Williams’ all-conquering FW14B, but Senna continued to say that McLaren suffered a loss of “1 million dollars” per race due to the delay in Senna’s approval. required persuasion from McLaren team boss Ron Dennis.
Despite recovering to finish the 1993 season with five wins and second place in the drivers’ standings, Senna made his long-awaited move to Williams for the 1994 season.
Unfortunately, this story came to a tragic end with his death in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher – From Benetton to Ferrari
Despite winning consecutive world titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, Michael Schumacher was lured by Ferrari to move to Maranello. The team last won the title in 1979.
In July 1995, rumors emerged that the German had traveled to Geneva to sign a contract with Ferrari, even though Flavio Briatore’s Benetton wanted to retain their world championship title.
But reportedly offered $25 million in exchange for loyalty, he traded his championship-winning Benetton for Ferrari red and signed a two-year contract with the Italian stable.
Schumacher went on to win five drivers’ titles with Ferrari, dominating the company from 2000 to 2004 before being dethroned by Renault’s Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton – McLaren to Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, finishing on the podium in his first race, the Australian Grand Prix.
He would go on to win the world title with the Woking team in 2008, but four years later he shocked the F1 paddock by announcing he was leaving McLaren for the untested Mercedes.
In his fourth season on the grid and with just one win under his belt, Hamilton’s significant actions were questioned by drivers past and present.
Jenson Button said: “It’s his decision, but personally I don’t think it’s the right one,” while Alan McNish said: “I don’t think Lewis will win the 2013 race. And the car… “I don’t think we can win the race,” he said. It will do well in 2014. ”
Hamilton only scored one P1 win in his first season with Mercedes, at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix, but a year later won his second drivers’ title, making it his sixth driver’s title with the Brackley team. This is the first of many titles.
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Fernando Alonso – from Renault to McLaren
Alonso, who went down in the F1 history books as the two-time world champion with Renault and the driver who ended Michael Schumacher’s five-year reign, won the world title with Renault in 2006 before racing for McLaren. I started doing this.
This contract was already signed and concluded in 2005.
That year, en route to a world title, Alonso met secretly with McLaren team boss Ron Dennis in Japan to discuss a potential partnership before signing a one-year contract extension with Renault.
The move was announced in December 2005, and Alonso retired from the world title in 2006.
However, his move to McLaren had already been signed and made official, and he was due to head to Woking in January 2007, but the Spaniard left the team due to a bad relationship with Spygate and returned to Renault. , the transfer lasted only one season. with his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel – From Red Bull to Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel won four Drivers’ Championship titles with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013, but a lackluster 2014 season saw the German jump to Ferrari.
Vettel entered F1 in 2008 with Red Bull’s junior team, known as Toro Rosso, and surprised team leaders at the Italian Grand Prix. As a result, they promoted him to the first team a year later.
Vettel, who finished second in his first campaign with Red Bull, came from behind to beat team-mates Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso to win the 2010 drivers’ title. It was Vettel’s only time at the top of the year, taking first place in the standings after Abu Dhabi.
Vettel and Red Bull’s success story, which saw them win three more titles in four years, came to an abrupt end in 2014 when a Renault engine that lost power was blown up by a Mercedes power unit.
All it took was that disappointing season for Vettel to sign with Ferrari. Perhaps the worst-kept secret in the paddock, he followed in the footsteps of his hero Michael Schumacher, but was unable to join his compatriot as Ferrari world champion.
Read next: Lewis Hamilton’s first words explaining his surprising decision to leave the Mercedes team
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