Nico Hulkenberg feels F1 rival needs ‘change of scenery’ after ‘difficult few years’

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Haas star Nico Hulkenberg feels Lewis Hamilton needed a ‘change of scenery’, so he agreed to leave Mercedes and replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

The Scuderia scrapped talks with Sainz over his potential new contract in Maranello to snare Hamilton from Mercedes. He has agreed to a multi-year deal to race for Ferrari following the 2024 campaign. It brings the curtain down on F1’s most successful driver-team pairing yet.

Hamilton has won six of his record-equalling seven drivers’ championships since signing for the Silver Arrows in 2013. The 39-year-old has also won 82 of his record 103 Grand Prix plus 78 of his record 104 pole positions and 148 of his record podiums yet since he left McLaren.

F1 icon Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025

But Hamilton and Mercedes have endured a tough few years since Formula 1 embraced new ground effect regulations in 2022. Brackley bosses pursuing a zero-pod concept and then carrying it into 2023 resulted in the Stevenage-born star’s only winless seasons in F1 ever.

Last year also saw Hamilton score fewer points with 234 than he had recorded since his first year in Brackley. The Briton had his previous-worst campaign of the turbo-hybrid era in 2022 with 240 points, as well. But Hamilton, still, finished third in the 2023 drivers’ championship.

Nico Hulkenberg feels Lewis Hamilton needed a ‘new impulse’

Failing to win a race for two years was enough to tempt Hamilton to trigger an escape clause in the contract he agreed at Mercedes last August and sign with Ferrari for 2025, though. He last stood atop the podium at the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP, going 45 Grand Prix with a victory.

That plight convinces Haas driver Hulkenberg that Hamilton needed to find a new home and leave Mercedes. He will now oust Sainz at Ferrari from the 2025 season on a multi-year deal beside Charles Leclerc. Sainz was the only non-Red Bull race winner over the 2023 season.

“I think after such a long time you’re just looking for a new challenge,” Hulkenberg told Sky Germany. “You need a new impulse, in a sense a change of scenery. The last few years have been relatively difficult for him and Mercedes compared to before.”