The 2025 Red year begins: Lewis Hamilton is now with Ferrari, Marc Marquez with Ducati
01/02/2025 04:43 AM
Usually, driver contracts are based on a calendar year, not a season basis, and start on January 1st and end on December 31st. Therefore, with the transition from 2024 to 2025, two of the most significant driver changes in recent times have become effective: Lewis Hamilton is now officially a Ferrari driver and Marc Marquez is a Ducati rider.
Hamilton shocked the world when, before the start of the 2024 World Championship, he revealed his departure from Mercedes and his move to Ferrari for 2025, linking the most successful driver of all time with the most successful team in history. However, both are longing for a title, albeit at different levels. Lewis Hamilton’s record came to a halt in that historic 2021, which marked the start of Max Verstappen’s golden era, while Ferrari has not won a drivers’ title since 2007 and a constructors’ title since 2008.
In 2024, however, the Scuderia fought for the Constructors’ title until the last race with McLaren, and in 2025 it hopes to claim at least one of the two crowns. Hamilton, on the other hand, wants to leave behind a disappointing 2024 and start what he hopes will be a new chapter of success for his already glittering career.
He arrives in Maranello with the aim of accomplishing what great champions like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel failed to do—win a world championship in Red.
And, after not receiving permission from Mercedes to debut with Ferrari in the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi, we could soon see the best images of Lewis Hamilton with the Ferrari logo beyond the montages used in recent months (or like the one used with Grok, AI of X, for this article).
Marc Marquez is now a Ducati rider in MotoGP
“Everything in Red,” read Marc Marquez’s cap and suit during his first test with the official Ducati team last November. Gresini Racing allowed the number 93 to make his debut with the official Italian team, but he couldn’t wear all the sponsors of his new team and appeared quite neutral in his kit.
Now, the most successful rider on the current grid begins his adventure with the team to beat, which has won in recent seasons. The multi-time champion has not won a title since 2019, but after the nightmare injury early in 2020, which he carried through the following seasons, in 2024, with a satellite team and a bike from the previous year, he already achieved great results and no one excludes him as a World Championship contender in 2025.
He will have to beat everyone, especially his teammate Pecco Bagnaia, who won't be able to carry the “1” on his bike to mark his territory, having lost the title to Jorge Martin, who had the same bike but with a satellite team, Prima Pramac Racing. Now, in fact, the Spaniard is an official Aprilia rider from January 1st.
F1 and MotoGP contracts starting January 1st
Hamilton with Ferrari
Marc Marquez with Ducati
Carlos Sainz with Williams
Nico Hulkenberg with Sauber
Gabriel Bortoleto with Sauber
Esteban Ocon with Haas
Oliver Bearman with Haas
Jorge Martin with Aprilia
Enea Bastianini with KTM (as a Tech3 rider)
Marco Bezzecchi with Aprilia
Franco Morbidelli with VR46
Miguel Oliveira with Yamaha (as a Pramac rider)
Jack Miller with Yamaha (as a Pramac rider)
Maverick Vinales with KTM (as a Tech3 rider)
Fermin Aldeguer with Ducati (as a Gresini rider)
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is already officially a Mercedes main driver, just like Jack Doohan at Alpine or Liam Lawson at Red Bull, but all three belonged to these teams and were already contracted with them. Isack Hadjar was part of the Red Bull academy and is now a Racing Bulls rider.
Pedro Acosta was already a KTM rider but will now make his debut with the official team.
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