5 biggest F1 driver moves of the 21st century feat. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton's announcement has shocked the F1 world as well as the world of sports in general. The Mercedes driver has been an iconic figure in the sport but what has stood out for him more than anything else in the last decade is his association with the German brand.

The German brand grew over the last 10 years but so did Lewis Hamilton as he became the most successful F1 driver in the history of the sport. In a sport like F1, moments like this are rare where driver movement from one team to another creates such hype. This is exactly what has happened with Lewis Hamilton and that has been rare in the 21st century. In this piece, let's take a look at some of the biggest driver movement announcements of the century.

#1 Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari

The latest has to be Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari. Even 24 hours before the whole thing was announced, nobody would have even guessed that this was happening. Hamilton had been part of the team for far too long and most importantly a contract was signed by the two parties just six months back. Well, as they say, in F1 things can be very fluid and this is the perfect example of that.

#2 Sebastian Vettel to Ferrari

Arguably a move of a similar magnitude was Sebastian Vettel announcing out of the blue in 2014 that he would not be a Red Bull driver anymore and was leaving for Ferrari. The German had enjoyed a prolonged period of success with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013.

He had won four consecutive titles only to find out in 2014 that the power unit from Renault meant Red Bull had too big a gap to the front. Taking all that into consideration and wanting to emulate what Michael Schumacher had done, Vettel took the plunge and jumped ship to Ferrari.

#3 Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton is not new to pulling off these surprise moves as his move from McLaren to Mercedes had a similar trajectory. At the time, the German team was just three years into the sport and still very new.

In terms of success, it didn't have much as there was only one win to show for the efforts. Lewis however felt drained at McLaren and took the punt. That move helped the driver to ultimately reach a point where he found himself in a dominant car in 2014 and the rest as they say is history.

#4 Michael Schumacher to Mercedes

Michael Schumacher retired from the sport in 2006 as a Ferrari driver. Even at that time, he had already achieved all that there was to achieve in F1. However, when in 2010, Ross Brawn was made the leader of the new Mercedes operation, Michael Schumacher was given the call and what followed was news of a sensational return to the sport.

#5 Kimi Raikkonen's return to F1 with Lotus

Not many right now remember how famous Kimi Raikkonen was when he made his return to F1 in 2012. The charismatic Finn had left the sport in 2009 almost disillusioned by the off-track happenings. It was thus interesting to see how fans reacted to Raikkonen's return as he completely turned Lotus into a frontrunner in his very first year.