British Formula One star Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes and join Ferrari for the 2025 season.
It is understood the Mercedes factory is to be briefed by the chief executive of the firm’s F1 team, Toto Wolff, ahead of a formal announcement later today.
Hamilton was linked to Ferrari for 2024, but he signed a two-year contract worth £100m last summer to stay until the end of 2025.
As part of the deal, it is understood the seven-time world champion is eligible to leave Mercedes at the end of the year.
He is therefore expected to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari.
Sainz’s contract is due to expire at the end of 2024, while Ferrari’s other driver, Charles Leclerc, recently agreed a new long-term deal.
Before his current contract was signed, Hamilton told ESPN in May 2023 that he 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.
But he went on to say Mercedes is “home” and that he is happy where he is.
The move would end an extraordinarily successful partnership, with Hamilton winning six world titles in the space of seven years from 2014-20.
However, Mercedes have since fallen off the pace and Hamilton has not won a race since 2021.
