Lewis Hamilton’s surprising move to Ferrari is the dominant topic in motorsport. Apparently the move will be sweetened with a princely salary.
Lewis Hamilton will be in the cockpit of Scuderia Ferrari from 2025 – this news is still electrifying Formula 1 one day after it was announced. In international newspapers the change was described as a “lightning strike” (“Il Messagero” from Italy), “bomb of the century” (“Marca” from Spain) or “the most gigantic of all shocks” (“The Independent” from England).
In order to get out of his contract with Mercedes, the Briton used a special contract option that allows him to get out of his working paper, which was extended just a few months ago, a year earlier.
No details are known about Hamilton’s contract with the traditional racing team from Maranello in northern Italy – only that it will run for “several years”.
Formula 1 record salary for Hamilton?
Sports business insider Joe Pompliano has now given a number: $100 million. That’s how much Hamilton is supposed to earn at Ferrari per year. He is referring to the Italian Formula 1 journalist Giuliano Duchessa.
That would be the equivalent of around 93 million euros – a sum that no Formula 1 driver has ever earned in a season before.
Additional donations from Ferrari’s CEO?
But things are about to get even better for Hamilton: Ferrari’s supervisory board chairman John Elkann is to donate a “significant” amount of money to the Brit’s charitable initiatives. “He basically gave him a blank check,” Pompaliano wrote on social network X.
Confirmation of these contract details is still pending. Because both Hamilton and Ferrari continue to hold back from providing more detailed information about the contract or the change itself.