Is Lewis Hamilton Going to Ferrari? What We Know
Is Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari? Yes, and it's already done. Scuderia Ferrari confirmed a multi-year deal with the seven-time Formula 1 world champion on February 1, 2024, and he lined up for the team from the 2025 season.
He walked away from Mercedes-AMG Petronas after twelve seasons, six drivers' titles and 105 Grand Prix wins.
Ferrari's official entry list named him alongside Charles Leclerc, carrying the number 44 on the SF-25. His first race start for the Scuderia came at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix on March 16. So the real question isn't whether it happened.
It's what the move actually looks like on paper, on track, and in the seasons ahead.
Quick Answer: Yes, Lewis Hamilton Is Already a Ferrari Driver
Is Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari? He already drives for them. Ferrari announced the move on February 1, 2024.
His contract began with the 2025 season, alongside Charles Leclerc. The deal is multi-year, and Ferrari never published an end date. As of 2026, he remains on Ferrari's entry list.
How the Deal Happened: Mercedes Exit, Ferrari Contract, and the February 2024 Announcement
Ferrari didn't leak this one. They confirmed it. On February 1, 2024, both Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team published statements announcing Hamilton's switch for 2025.
Mercedes framed it as his final season with the team, closing out a partnership that began in 2013.
The timing caught almost everyone off guard. Hamilton had signed a two-year Mercedes extension in August 2023 that ran through 2025. That contract reportedly carried a release clause he could trigger after year one.
Our read of the official statements points to exactly that. He activated it, Mercedes accepted it, and the paddock shifted overnight.
The people behind it matter too:
- John Elkann, Ferrari's chairman, and Benedetto Vigna, the CEO, drove the push from the top.
- Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari's team principal, had known Hamilton since their junior formula days together.
- Toto Wolff, Mercedes' team principal, publicly accepted the decision rather than fight it.
What the Ferrari Contract Actually Says
Less than you'd expect. Ferrari described it as a multi-year agreement starting in 2025, and that's the wording that has stood ever since. Most credible reporting places the term through 2026, with an option stretching into 2027.
Neither side has published the exact end date, and that's deliberate.
There was another quiet negotiation running through 2024. Hamilton's personal sponsors had to be squared with Ferrari's partner roster, which includes title partner HP. Some of his long-standing deals sit in categories Ferrari already sells.
Resolving that took months, not weeks, and it's part of why the announcement landed when it did.
Mercedes, meanwhile, got a clean handover rather than a messy divorce. That mattered for 2025, and it matters more now that the regulations reset.
Full Timeline: From Hamilton's Last Mercedes Race to His Ferrari Debut
Dates are where most articles go wrong. Here's the sequence as the official statements and entry lists laid it out.
| Date | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 1, 2024 | Ferrari and Mercedes confirm the switch | Rumor becomes official fact |
| Dec 8, 2024 | Abu Dhabi GP, his last Mercedes race | Ends 12 seasons and six titles with the team |
| Jan 2025 | First Ferrari test at Fiorano in an older car | Seat fitting, install laps, first feedback |
| Feb 2025 | SF-25 livery reveal, then Bahrain testing | First real running in the 2025 car |
| Mar 16, 2025 | Australian GP debut, finished 10th | First race start in Ferrari red |
| Mar 2025 | Chinese GP weekend in Shanghai | First Ferrari win, then a disqualification |
That Shanghai weekend summed up the early Ferrari experience pretty well. Hamilton took victory in the Saturday sprint, his first win of any kind for the Scuderia. A day later, both Ferraris were disqualified from the Grand Prix after post-race checks found the cars underweight, which stewards traced to excessive skid block wear.
One weekend, one trophy, one bruising technical lesson.
The Fiorano test deserves a mention because it's easy to skim past. Ferrari ran him in a previous-year car before the new one was ready, purely to get his seating position, pedal feel and steering weight dialled in. That's standard practice, but with a driver of his experience, it shortened the learning curve considerably.
As of 2026, he's still on Ferrari's entry list. The reported contract term keeps him there at least through this season, which means the next chapter is the technical reset rather than another transfer saga.
Ferrari in 2025 and 2026: Hamilton, Leclerc, Vasseur, and the SF-25
The SF-25 was an evolution rather than a clean-sheet design. Ferrari kept the pull-rod front suspension layout they'd committed to a year earlier and refined the floor and sidepod geometry around it. Loïc Serra, who moved from Mercedes to Ferrari as chassis technical director in late 2024, had a hand in shaping that direction.
Hamilton and Leclerc as Teammates
This is the pairing the whole grid watches. Leclerc brings raw single-lap pace that few drivers can match. Hamilton brings race craft, tyre management and a decade of championship pressure.
That combination should be complementary. In practice, it creates friction over strategy calls.
Ferrari's priority is the constructors' championship, which means both drivers get equal machinery but not always equal strategy. When a team is chasing a title, someone usually gets the better call. Watching how Vasseur handles that is half the story.
Did Hamilton Adapt Quickly to Ferrari?
Faster than most expected, and slower than the headlines suggested. The sprint win in Shanghai came in his second race weekend, which set an unrealistic bar. The disqualification the next day reset it.
What followed was a season of adaptation: new engineers, new terminology, new tyre behaviour, and a language shift inside the garage.
He also had to learn how Ferrari operates politically. Maranello is not Brackley. Decisions travel differently, media scrutiny is louder, and the Tifosi hold strong opinions about everything.
That adjustment takes a full season, not a winter.
The 2026 car is the real test. Ferrari has been building toward these regulations for two years, and Hamilton's feedback loop with the engineering team is now established rather than new. If Ferrari nails the power unit, he's in a position to fight.
If they don't, no amount of experience fixes it.
What This Means for Hamilton, Leclerc, Mercedes, and the 2026 Formula 1 Regulations
The 2026 rules are the biggest technical shake-up in over a decade. The FIA confirmed the framework, and it changes nearly everything that makes a car fast.
| Area | 2025 spec | 2026 spec |
|---|---|---|
| Power unit | V6 hybrid with MGU-H | MGU-H removed, roughly 50% electrical output |
| Fuel | E10 sustainable blend | 100% sustainable fuel |
| Aerodynamics | Ground effect, fixed wings | Active aero, smaller and lighter cars |
For Hamilton, that's either a gift or a problem, depending on Ferrari's execution. A regulation reset rewards teams that read the rules best, and it punishes teams that carried over a flawed concept. Ferrari's last drivers' title came in 2007 with Kimi Räikkönen.
Their last constructors' crown was 2008. That drought is the backdrop to all of this.
Mercedes moved on fast. George Russell stayed, and Kimi Antonelli stepped up from the junior programme into the second seat. Replacing a seven-time champion with a rookie is a gamble, though a calculated one given Antonelli's testing mileage and Mercedes' own focus on 2026.
For Leclerc, the calculus is simple. He's no longer the undisputed future of Ferrari. He's sharing the garage with the most decorated driver in the sport's history, on equal terms.
That raises his ceiling and his risk at the same time.
For fans, the practical upshot is this. Hamilton's Ferrari chapter isn't a rumor to track anymore. It's an active project, and the interesting part is what happens between 2026 and the end of his contract, whenever that officially is.
Rumor vs. Official News: Common Mistakes and How to Verify Hamilton's Ferrari Status
Most bad information about this move comes from recycled articles. A 2019 speculation piece still surfaces in search results, written as if nothing has happened since. Here's where people trip up.
The Claims That Keep Circulating
| What you'll read online | What's actually true |
|---|---|
| "Hamilton could join Ferrari in 2026" | He joined for the 2025 season |
| "The Ferrari deal collapsed" | Ferrari and Mercedes both confirmed it in February 2024 |
| "It's a one-year contract" | Ferrari described it as multi-year |
| "He's linked to a Ferrari road car" | The deal is with Scuderia Ferrari, the F1 team |
The 2026 mix-up is the most common one. People hear "new regulations" and "Hamilton's Ferrari era" in the same breath and merge them. The rules changed in 2026.
He arrived in 2025.
How to Verify It Yourself in Two Minutes
Skip the aggregators. Go to primary sources.
- Check the official Formula 1 entry list for the current season. If Hamilton sits under Ferrari, that settles it.
- Read the original February 1, 2024 statements on Ferrari's and Mercedes' own websites.
- Look at the FIA entry list published ahead of each Grand Prix weekend.
- Ignore anything without a date stamp. F1 news ages faster than milk.
One more trap worth flagging: contract rumors. You'll see claims he's leaving early, or that a specific opt-out clause exists. Ferrari has never confirmed an end date.
Treat every specific number as unverified until the team itself says otherwise.
Why the Confusion Persists
Two things keep this question alive. First, the deal was reported as speculation for five straight years before it happened, so old articles blend into new ones. Second, merchandising lagged behind reality.
Plenty of retailers still listed Hamilton under Mercedes branding well into 2025.
If you're betting on driver moves, check your bookmaker's rules on void bets first. Some markets settle on official confirmation, others on first race start. That distinction matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari?
He's already there. Ferrari confirmed the move on February 1, 2024, and he started racing for the team in 2025. As of 2026, he remains on Ferrari's entry list alongside Charles Leclerc.
The contract is described as multi-year, with no official end date published.
When did Lewis Hamilton join Ferrari?
His contract began with the 2025 season. He completed his first Ferrari test at Fiorano in January 2025 and made his race debut at the Australian Grand Prix on March 16, 2025. His final race for Mercedes was the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Did Lewis Hamilton win a race for Ferrari?
Yes, in a sprint. He won the Saturday sprint at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, his first victory of any kind for Ferrari. He was then disqualified from the Sunday Grand Prix after post-race checks found the car underweight.
How long is Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari contract?
Ferrari has only ever called it a multi-year agreement. Most reporting places the term through 2026 with an option for 2027, but neither Ferrari nor Hamilton's management has confirmed the exact length. Anything more specific than that is speculation.
Who replaced Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes?
George Russell stayed, and Kimi Antonelli stepped up from Mercedes' junior programme into the second seat for 2025. Antonelli had racked up extensive private testing mileage before the promotion. Mercedes confirmed the lineup in August 2024, before Hamilton's final season had even finished.
Is Lewis Hamilton still at Ferrari in 2026?
Yes. He appears on Ferrari's official entry list for the 2026 season, driving alongside Charles Leclerc. The 2026 cars run under new technical regulations with roughly 50% electrical power and 100% sustainable fuel.
That reset is the main storyline for his Ferrari chapter right now.
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