Lewis Hamilton’s stunning Ferrari F1 announcement, revisited a year later

The staff at SB Nation is a tremendous mix of individuals, including morning people — of which I am sadly becoming one in my later years — and night owls. With staff members living in various parts of the United States, as well as all over the world, chances are at least one of us is up at a certain hour keeping tabs on the sports world.

Scrolling back through our internal communications from February 1, 2024, the day began innocently enough. Or more accurately, the previous night ended innocently enough. Some messages after midnight on the East Coast about some West Coast NBA games, including the Portland Trail Blazers spoiling Dame Lillard’s return with a 119-116 win over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks.

But then at 6:56 Eastern on the morning of February 1, the thunderbolt came.

Lewis Hamilton was leaving Mercedes at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season for Ferrari.

My colleague James Dator — a brilliant writer who is also a massive F1 fan — shared in our internal communications system this post from Sky Sports well before most had woken up:

It was an announcement that transcended the sports world and carried over into the world at large. Family members and friends who knew nothing about Formula 1 were asking for a comparison, and the idea of Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots for the New York Jets, or the Dallas Cowboys, was quickly offered as a comparison.

It was also an announcement that had been rumored in the previous days, as some of the sport’s more notable media figures began hinting at rumors of a “massive” announcement. Will Buxton, whose star turn on Drive to Survive made him one of the sport’s most well-known figures, had shared on social media the day before that something was coming:

It was Buxton’s post, and others like it, that had me on edge. Pre-writes were drafted on that last night of January, and I would be lying if I said I got a good night of sleep. I tossed and turned throughout the night, constantly waking up to check my phone as the rumors were slowly confirmed before dragging myself out of bed before the rest of the family woke up to start writing for real.

Over the morning at SB Nation, we shifted into all-hands mode. Yes, Super Bowl LVIII was right around the corner and there were stories to be written about the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, but this needed all our attention. We wrote about the announcement itself, we dove into potential replacements for Hamilton at Mercedes — thankfully I brought that article to a close with the suggestion of young Andrea Kimi Antonelli — wondered why Hamilton would make such a move, dove into Carlos Sainz Jr.’s pledge to give his best for Ferrari in his final year with the Scuderia, and drew parallels between Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.

That’s how big this announcement was: It drew our attention away from the Super Bowl.

Eventually, the 2024 season began. Sainz did give his absolute best for Ferrari in his final season in red, picking up a pair of wins for Ferrari and helping the team to a second-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship. As for Hamilton, he returned to the top step of a podium for the first time in an emotional victory at Silverstone, his final British Grand Prix with Mercedes. He was also promoted to a win at Spa when teammate George Russell was disqualified after failing post-race inspections following taking the checkered flag at the Belgian Grand Prix.

But all of those moments paled in comparison to how February 1, 2024, began in the Formula 1 world.

Now, what was contemplated on that February morning is becoming reality. Ferrari’s rollout of Hamilton as their newest F1 driver continues, from photos of the living legend’s first visit to their Maranello factory, to the first glimpses of him in a Ferrari race suit, to the first clips of him behind the wheel of the SF-23. As for Sainz, who announced a move of his own last summer when he inked a deal to drive for Williams in 2025 and beyond, his own rollout continues with images and videos of his first visits to the team’s Grove factory.

But for one morning in February, the entire sports world paused, as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history commanded the world’s attention.

And the sport may never be the same.