Lewis Hamilton stunned followers when he announced that he would be racing for Ferrari beginning with the 2025 season. This is one sporting move that seemed to come out of nowhere and made headlines all over the world.
So, what will the impact be? Have bookmakers taken in more money for Ferrari to win the Championship for the year when Hamilton takes the reins, or do people think of him as a spent force in F1?
In this article, we’re exploring Hamilton’s move, and the inevitable impact it is likely to have on F1 betting sites and whether people are trying to predict how Hamilton will perform. Could this be the start of an era of Ferrari dominance, and how will it impact life at Mercedes? Betting companies offer a lot of different odds and markets on Formula 1, and plenty of them are bound to be impacted by one of the heavyweights of the sport making his move.
The shock move from Mercedes
When the news broke that Hamilton was moving from Mercedes to Ferrari, a lot of people were stunned.
Hamilton is still under contract with Mercedes, which is not due to end until the end of 2025, but he will only spend one more season (the current F1 season) racing for Mercedes, before making a move.
Of course, recent years have seen Red Bull dominate, and this could be one of the reasons why he wants to make a move, to test whether he can once again reach the top.
Hamilton has now gone over 800 days without winning a race, with his last victory coming in 2021, which could be one of the reasons that he has decided to make this move, trying to rekindle success with a different team behind him.
Hamilton has been with Mercedes for over 10 years already, having joined them way back in 2013. Next year, he will race with yet another team, where Charles Leclerc will be his teammate.
Hamilton is a seven-time world champion, tied with Michael Schumacher as the greatest of all time. He has managed an incredible 103 wins in his career along with 104 pole positions, and this could be an attempt to overtake Schumacher as the most successful driver of all time, winning that next World Championship.
Before the 2024 season got underway, Lewis was quizzed about the fact that he has decided to move, and the timing of the announcement. It was just last summer when he committed to his current teammates, so many people were stunned by the fact he will only be honouring the first year of his two-year deal.
“An opportunity came up in the New Year and I decided to take it.” said Hamilton before taking part in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“It was obviously the hardest decision I think I’ve ever had to make. I’ve been with Mercedes for I think it’s like 26 years they’ve supported me and we’ve had an absolutely incredible journey together. We’ve created history within the sport and it’s something I take a lot of pride in and am very proud of what we’ve achieved.”
Could Lewis Hamilton’s age be playing a part?
Hamilton is now 39, which is hardly old, and plenty of drivers have raced far beyond the age of 40, but not many have had success in the Driver’s Championship past the age of 40. In the last 50 years, nobody over the age of 40 has won the overall Drivers’ Championship. The oldest to ever do so was Juan Manuel Fangio, a hall of famer, when he was 46 years of age.
Lewis Hamilton is already in the list of the top 10 oldest drivers to achieve this feat. When he won in 2020, he became the ninth oldest driver to do so. Any win now would put him older than Nigel Mansell, who won at the age of 39 back in 1992.
Nobody should be quick to write Hamilton off, but perhaps in the way he is making the decision, he is considering the fact that this could be a last hurrah for his career. Can Ferrari provide the tools for him to get another title under his belt?
Hamilton is probably the greatest of all time in Formula One, so there should be nobody saying that he is definitely finished as a force, but there are likely to be those who think he won’t return to the summit.
What the odds say
Until this season has shaken out, and we see what the teams will look like next year, it is unlikely there will be too many odds even offered on the F1 results.
The few sites that have given any odds on Lewis Hamilton’s potential to win the Drivers’ Championship in 2025 have put the odds at around 5/1. These are subject to change, of course, and it is just one of the markets. Even if he doesn’t emulate Michael Schumacher by winning the title for Ferrari, there are some other ways in which he could make headlines, and winning individual races would be something Hamilton will be desperate to get back to.
Some of the sites out there have Hamilton listed at 2/1 to win three or more races in the 2025 season. This would be an upward step from recent years when he has failed to land that first-place finish.
For this year, though, it seems Hamilton would do well to even get some podium places. He probably will manage to do so at some stage, but he is long odds to win the Championship. Let’s face it, it is going to take a monumental effort to topple Verstappen, but it isn’t impossible.
This is likely to be the final move in Hamilton’s illustrious career, where we will see him roll the dice one more time, trying to get that title that means he will be the undisputed GOAT. We’ll be watching the odds with interest over the coming year or two to see what the odds makers think of Hamilton in a Ferrari!
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