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Formula One fans, how’s your blood pressure after last week?

We went from F1 rejecting Andretti’s entry for 2025 or 2026 to the blockbuster news of Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025. Carlos Sainz, at no fault of his own, became collateral damage and will be a prime target for what was already anticipated to be a busy silly season.

So where does that leave us? The move raises many questions, but one thing is for sure. Once we get past 2024’s 24 grands prix and six sprint races, it’ll be the end of an era. Hamilton will have spent 12 years with Mercedes, and the duo of Sainz and Charles Leclerc formed one of the stronger, more complete driver pairings on the grid.

We got plenty of questions for our post-news mailbag, so buckle up as we dig into the storyline that’ll likely dominate the next couple F1 seasons.

Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Why are people so shocked? Lewis has always admitted he’s had a soft spot for the team in red. He’s now approaching the end of his career and wants to do one of the only things he hasn’t achieved in F1, which is racing for Ferrari. Everyone who’s a racer wants to race for Ferrari. I would actually bet that when Hamilton retires Max Verstappen replaces him at Ferrari. — Bradley M.

You’re correct in highlighting the enduring appeal of Ferrari, something that would undoubtedly have been a big part of Hamilton’s decision. All drivers will dream at one stage or another of driving those famous red cars someday. So few get to realize that dream.

But it’s still a shock that Hamilton is doing it now, particularly after building such strong ties with Mercedes for close to two decades. He won his first world title for McLaren in 2008 when it was the Mercedes works team, then jumped ship to the Mercedes factory team (which returned to F1 in 2010) for 2013. Their on-track success aside, off-track, Hamilton has always spoken of the team as a family, as well as embarking on significant charitable initiatives together like Mission 44 and Ignite.

The timing is also the shocking part of this. Hamilton has made the decision before even turning a wheel in this year’s Mercedes car, and with no firm idea of how it will stack up against the competitive order. Ultimately, it didn’t matter: Ferrari’s pull was too strong. The idea of Hamilton racing for Ferrari was always regarded as a great ‘what if?’ in F1 circles. Now we’ll get the answer.

Verstappen to Ferrari? Funnily enough, it’s something Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal, was asked about in December. “If you ask the same question to the 10 team principals down the grid, that everybody would say that we would be pleased at one stage to welcome Max into the team,” Vasseur said, before joking: “I think he has a contract until 2045!” (2028, actually, but yes, a long time!)

I personally can’t see Verstappen ever leaving Red Bull. Then again, until last week, I couldn’t ever see Hamilton leaving Mercedes, either! Ferrari being Ferrari, that appeal will always be there. — Luke Smith

How do you see this season playing out for Mercedes? Will we see a team and driver be professional and working together or will we see Lewis squeezed out and George Russell gets preferential treatment? — Chris L.

The timing of Hamilton’s decision and announcement does set up a really intriguing dynamic going into this season. Right from the car launch planned for Feb. 14, so many of the questions are going to surround his future departure, and how Mercedes lays plans for the post-Hamilton era at Brackley.

But there is still a full season to run. The team has already promised a significant redesign of its car for 2024, which it believes has dialed out some of the worst traits of last year’s model. It’ll want to give everything to maximize whatever performance it has this year, meaning there must remain a high degree of professionalism in everything it does.

It’ll be towards the end of the season that Hamilton starts to find himself moving to the fringes of the team. The meetings he’ll have been an integral part of for the past decade will take place without him, instead focusing on Russell, whom Wolff talked up on Friday as being the next leader for the team.

There won’t be preferential treatment, per se, but I’m intrigued what happens if (or when) Hamilton and Russell have their first close moment on-track. It happened a few times last year, something Russell put down to them being so closely matched for pace. The fact of a driver leaving could mean there’s an extra bit of subtext, regardless of how fairly the team handles things.

Mercedes is focusing on the future – and it’s one Hamilton has decided to not be part of. That’s going to be felt particularly in the closing stages of the year when those plans start to become a priority. — Luke Smith

I feel badly for Carlos Sainz. Where will he end up? Simply Mercedes? Or will there be some major musical chairs going on? — Tom S.

As things stand, the drivers market for next season should be a hot one. But this was true before the Hamilton-to-Ferrari move was announced. Numerous contracts are set to expire at the end of the 2024 season, but while there are options for major musical chairs to happen, it’s not a guarantee.