Lewis Hamilton leaves Mercedes for Ferrari: Top 5 unanswered questions

It's official now that Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes and move to Ferrari at the end of the 2024 F1 season. A move that took everyone by storm and is still taking some time to get to terms with, happened all of a sudden and has now opened a Pandora's box.

The driver market has gone haywire and the fact that this has happened at the most successful team of the last decade is surprising. For a moment, even if we keep the picture of the overall grid to one side, there are quite a few unanswered questions that have emerged from this development. Let's see what they are.

#1 Who replaces Lewis at Mercedes?

With the suddenness of the news, one thing is clear, Mercedes was caught off-guard with this development and had no idea Lewis was going to drop this bombshell. This is precisely why Toto Wolff has probably been caught unawares in the whole situation and would have to dig down deep to select a suitable replacement.

Quite a few names are being thrown around including Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. The former multiple world champions would make for an interesting addition to Mercedes but it surely isn't a decision that will be taken in haste. Toto is going to sit on this and take his time before he makes a decision.

#2 Where does Carlos Sainz go?

One almost felt bad about Carlos because how he was booted out from Ferrari is nothing short of unfortunate. The Spaniard has done an admirable job being a team player but when Lewis Hamilton is on the market your fate can be out of your control.

Sainz has proved himself enough that he would be on the shortlist of many teams. Regardless, this development is going to hurt for sure.

#3 What led to Lewis Hamilton changing his mind after 6 months?

A bigger question that needs answering is that Lewis Hamilton's contract extension was announced only a few months back in August. It's been around half a year in which the driver has gone from having faith in Mercedes to signing a contract with Ferrari.

What led to the move? Is there something grievously wrong with Mercedes? Or this was just a case of fading motivation by being in the same place for too long?

#4 Who else is leaving Mercedes?

There are rumors of even Loic Serra, who is the head of vehicular development, joining Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.

While these rumors are not substantiated yet, there is this sense of Mercedes being a sinking ship with far too many people jumping off. Is that the case in reality? We might have to wait to reach the bottom of it.

#5 Did Charles Leclerc know before signing a long-term contract?

The Lewis Hamilton development does bring into question Ferrari's lucrative multi-year contract extension that was offered to Charles Leclerc just a few days back. More importantly, it begs the question of whether Leclerc knew there would be another lead driver Lewis Hamilton who would partner him at Ferrari.

Did Charles Leclerc sign a contract of being the lead driver and was blindsided by Lewis Hamilton's sudden arrival? We'll have to wait and hear from Fred Vasseur and Charles Leclerc what the reality was.