Lewis Hamilton is effectively a lame duck at Mercedes. That’s after he informed the team in the winter that he’d be joining rivals Ferrari for the 2025 season. Hamilton signed a two-year extension last summer but the second year of that agreement was optional. The 39-year-old was therefore entitled to accept the seismic offer from the Scuderia. Team principal Toto Wolff said he wasn’t surprised by the decision itself, simply by the timing. After all, the Englishman had chosen to abandon a legendary partnership before a wheel was turned in 2024. Between 2014 and 2020, Mercedes delivered six tit…