01 February 2024 , 18:31
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Ferrari shareholders will celebrate news of Lewis Hamilton's impending move to Italy after the carmaker's share price rocketed.
Hamilton will remain with the Mercedes team he calls his "family" for the upcoming 2024 season. But, at the end of it, the Briton will pack his bags and move to Italy to represent the famous Prancing Horse.
Neither Mercedes nor Ferrari have commented publicly on the move, which is not yet officially confirmed. But that final confirmation may come as soon as Thursday evening and, in any case, the lack of an announcement has not deterred traders from making major stock market moves.
The value of the Ferrari parent company rocketed after the New York Stock Exchange opened on Thursday. By 1pm local time, the share price was up by almost 13 percent on where it had started in the morning - adding more than £5.5 billion to the market cap. It may be even higher by the time trading closes.
Hamilton's planned move is surely not the only factor - Ferrari also issued a positive earnings report on Thursday. Nevertheless, the price rise is a big vote of confidence that the team has done the right thing by poaching the 39-year-old.
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Hamilton is set to join Charles Leclerc who put pen to paper on a new multi-year contract extension himself only last month. It means Carlos Sainz will have to start afresh somewhere else, with his Ferrari contract expiring at the end of this year.
The seven-time world champion has said in the past that it would have been a "dream" of his to represent Ferrari. And Ralf Schumacher is adamant that is the reason why the Briton has been lured to sign for the Scuderia, rather than a desire to emulate his bother Michael.
He said: "I think Lewis, maybe it's his dream, I've not spoken to him. I don't think he's doing it because of Michael, I think Ferrari is one of the places to be in the history of Formula 1. Especially for a driver like Lewis who has achieved almost everything and was very unlucky not to be eight-time world champion to be honest.
"I think it is just the dot on the I to make it perfect. I think a very important, key factor is [team principal] Fred Vasseur. He knows him for a long time and what he already did the team, he showed how calm and Ferrari is now more organised to the outside than what it was before.
"Less [sic] mistakes in pitstops and so on. That's good. I think at the end of the day number one it might be possible but you have to drive for that and be faster than your team-mate."