This isn’t Lewis Hamilton’s first audacious team switch.
Ferrari’s announcement Thursday that Hamilton would be leaving Mercedes and driving its storied red cars in 2025 was one of the biggest shocks in recent Formula 1 history. Heck, it can be convincingly argued that it’s the biggest shock in nearly 12 years — when Hamilton made a decision that rocked F1 in 2012.
Hamilton was an immediate star when he arrived in Formula 1 in 2007. He won four races his rookie season and finished just a point behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the title. If Hamilton and McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso hadn’t spent the entire year racing each other as much as they raced Raikkonen, Hamilton could have been a world champion right away.