Hamilton delivers short answer for his decision to join Ferrari

Ahead of his career-redefining moment, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed why he has elected to depart from Mercedes and join Formula One's most successful outfit Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton announced his shock departure from Mercedes on the 1st of February. The announcement caught the Formula One community by surprise, as the seven-time world champion was set to race for the Brackley-based outfit until the end of 2025.

However, an exit clause in his contract allowed Hamilton to leave the team in 2025 if he wished, and the Briton elected to terminate his contract at the end of the current season and seek for a new challenge at Ferrari next year.

Hamilton is statistically the most successful driver in the history of Formula One, tied with the great German seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher on the number of world championship titles.

Speaking to Mirror, Matt Whyman, author of new book 'Inside Mercedes F1: Life in the Fast Lane', spoke about Hamilton's motivation to join the Scuderia: "I asked him directly what was going on and he just said, ‘It is every kid's dream who gets involved in motor racing to race a Ferrari, and that is it - I did not want to get to the end of my career and look back and go, what if?’

"His team mean a great deal to him - all his engineers, Bono, all the team, they mean such a lot to him. Every year he takes them paintballing, just a pre-season bonding experience, and it was all set up to go so he had to go to the paintballing.

Whyman continued: "He said to me that he arrived and he saw them all waiting to go in. He said he could not get out of the car for 20 minutes. He was just so struck with, ‘What am I going to say to them after all of this time?’ He is very human. I do not think this was a robotic decision.

"I know Lewis can come across as very focused and it is a focused decision, but he is a human being, he knows that it has repercussions and on a friendship level, that was the thing that he cared about most of all.

"Talking to his colleagues, I think everyone understands. It is Ferrari, and this is a guy who has done everything - that is the one think he has not done."