A senior figure at Mercedes has revealed what he believes to be the true reason behind Lewis Hamilton’s departure from the team and his decision to join Ferrari.
Earlier this year, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion dropped a huge bombshell when he announced that he would be leaving the Silver Arrows to link up with the Italian outfit in 2025.
Having been linked with Ferrari in 2023, Hamilton had opted to sign a new two-year deal with Mercedes, leaving many shocked when the announcement came just months later that he had now decided to depart.
Hamilton will replace the outgoing Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, racing alongside Charles Leclerc in what looks a very impressive driver pairing.
Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari in 2025
Lewis Hamilton will partner Charles Leclerc at the Scuderia
Why did Lewis Hamilton leave Mercedes?
After making such an early season decision, Hamilton has been forced to race with his current team for the entirety of 2024 knowing he will be leaving at the end of the campaign.
Still, things have not gone too badly so far, and after a shaky start, the seven-time world champion now has two grands prix victories to his name at Silverstone and Spa respectively.
Mercedes’ resurgence has led to some questions as to whether or not Hamilton could regret his Ferrari switch, but the team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin does not believe car performance is the true reason for their star driver’s exit.
“I think if we’d been winning championships, it would have been difficult for Lewis to say no,” he explained to the media.
“However, I think his biggest reasons are not necessarily ones of car performance.
Lewis Hamilton has won two grands prix with Mercedes in 2024
“He clearly wants to have another chapter in his career beyond his very successful one with Mercedes. He’s of an age where if he was going to do that, he would need to do it sooner rather than later.”
Shovlin later reiterated the same point, again pointing to Hamilton’s desire for a new chapter as key to his departure.
“As I said, if we were dominating a championship, I suspect it would have been difficult for him to do that [exit],”
“But I think a big part of Lewis is wanting to have another team and another challenge in his career.
“I think when someone’s decided that they want to do that, it can be quite difficult to persuade them otherwise.”