F1 Blockbuster Moves: Lewis Hamilton's secret talks with champion to leave team

Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Adrian Newey, Jenson Button portraits are shown — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 Blockbuster Moves: Lewis Hamilton's secret talks with champion to leave team

Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Adrian Newey have stunned the F1 world

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 21 April 2026 19:44

There may be nothing more captivating in sport than trying to figure out the driver market in Formula 1. Who goes where and when all fitting like a jigsaw - including the bits you have to slam down with a closed fist to make it fit.

The Premier League has its transfer windows, the NFL it's famous draft but none have the complexity and butterfly effect that an F1 silly season can bring.

Every so often though an F1 move comes along that totally sweeps the rug under your feet and smashes that puzzle you had been putting together. 'He's gone where!?' you may then utter as you assess the fallout.

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One such move recently was Gianpiero Lambiase leaving Red Bull and Max Verstappen to go his own way at McLaren. Nobody saw it coming. Of course though he isn't the first, so here are seven more blockbuster F1 moves that took the sport by storm.

F1's Biggest Blockbuster Moves

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren to Mercedes (2013)

Now you may be thinking the jump to Ferrari was a bigger blockbusting move, maybe the biggest F1 move ever. But it was only two years ago it was announced and everyone knows the story. What can be forgotten is how much of a shock it was for Hamilton to leave McLaren at the end of 2012.

Hamilton had started his F1 career at the team in, won his first title in 2008, and had been there a lot longer as a junior driver. Woking was his second home.

But as McLaren's performance started to decline so did his patience and one chat with Mercedes mole and three-time champion Niki Lauda after retiring from the Singapore Grand Prix put him on the road to Mercedes to replace Michael Schumacher.

Back then there wasn't much difference in performance between the teams making the move a huge surprise. Six more world championships later, history favours Hamilton's choice well.

Jenson Button - Brawn to McLaren (2009)

Jenson Button entered 2009 fearing he didn't even have an F1 drive after the collapse of the Honda team. He ended it as world champion following the last minute buyout by Ross Brawn whose eponymously named team completed a fairytale win of the ages.

The Brawn GP name was always a short term solution though. Mercedes, whose engines powered Button's success saw an opportunity to buy out the outfit. It would have made sense for the British star to stay on and help continue building the team with now serious financial backing.

Instead he stepped into the lion's den at McLaren, taking on the daunting task of being Hamilton's team-mate in his own backyard. Many expected Button to sink but over three seasons with Hamilton, he scored more points than his compatriot.

Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren to Ferrari (2007)

McLaren vs Ferrari is a rivalry as old as time and Ferrari pulled off a major coup when they snatched Raikkonen away from McLaren to replace Michael Schumacher for 2007.

At this point, Fernando Alonso was a double world champion, but it wasn't an outrageous shout to suggest the Finn also known as the ‘Ice Man’ was the best driver in F1.

Raikkonen at this point was incredibly unfortunate not to win the 2003 title with McLaren in an inferior car, and also in 2005 when season long reliability issues saw him lose out to Alonso.

Eventually his patience ran too thin and he took his championship dreams to Ferrari where it took him just one season to realise those dreams… at the expense of both of McLaren’s drivers by just one point.

Kimi Raikkonen celebrates winning the world championship in 2007

Adrian Newey – McLaren to Red Bull (2006)

Adrian Newey’s patience had long been wearing thin at McLaren following from the disastrous MP4/18 that never raced (or did as a rebadged MP4/19 if you believe Newey) and fallouts with Ron Dennis over the direction of the team.

The silliness of it was Williams already found not making Newey happy leads to long term consequences, they haven’t won a title since he left 30 years ago.

So McLaren scored a massive own goal when they let Newey’s eyes wander to midfield Red Bull who were finding their feet under Christian Horner after starting up in 2005.

Granted McLaren would win the world championship soon after he left, but given Newey’s cars with a fizzy drinks logo would go on to dominate the early 2010s, Red Bull pulled off one of the biggest steals of the 2000s.

Jacques Villeneuve – Williams to BAR (1999)

After winning the world championship in 1997, Villeneuve was already on the back foot for 1998, with Williams no longer having any Adrian Newey influence on the car, neither a works partnership with Renault.

So after a disappointing 1998 the Canadian decided to throw his lot in with a brand new team ran by his friend and manager Craig Pollock. The goal and ambition was admirable, to build a whole team around him with elite people in many positions funded by the bottomless pockets of British American Tobacco (BAT) in a bid to rival Michael Schumacher’s project at Ferrari.

So BAR was born with immediate goals to win races in their first year…. They didn’t score a point.

Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve both left Williams in the late 1990s

Damon Hill – Williams to Arrows (1997)

One of the strangest F1 moves in history with the circumstances around it bizarre. Damon Hill was on his way to winning the 1996 world championship with Williams when the team stunned the F1 world when they confirmed his contract would not be renewed beyond the season, so they could draft in Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

The trouble is there were not many options for the world champion elect to go to. There was a headline offer from McLaren, but it was for 1998 and Hill never felt like he was wanted. Benetton interest was also reported. But it came down to a choice between Jordan and Arrows.

Jordan was the better move at the time but Arrows was the blind punt of having a title winning car ready to go in 1997. Arrows were under a new project from Tom Walkinshaw and had promised a new era with Yamaha engines and the new Bridgestone tyres. Arrows promise of potential and nothing more lured in Hill and the No 1 on their car in audacious move. One highly disappointing year later through a boulevard of broken dreams and Yamaha parts, Hill was heading to Jordan.

Michael Schumacher – Benetton to Ferrari (1996)

The Schumacher/Benetton partnership looked set to dominate the mid-to-late 1990s especially when the German was on his way to securing his second world championship in 1995.

Having been with the team since 1991, he was incredibly settled and with only Williams offering Benetton any sort of competition on the track, there was no obvious destination for Schumacher to move away from.

Yet in the summer of 1995 jaws dropped when Schumacher moved to the basket case Ferrari team for the 1996 season. Ferrari at this point had been nowhere near a title fight for half-a-decade.

Yet, every man has his price, and Schumacher’s was seeing his salary jump from $3m per year to $30m per year. Fair to say though his move paid off in more ways than one after winning another five world championships and establishing himself as the greatest F1 driver of all time.

F1 HEADLINES: Truth behind GP Red Bull exit revealed, McLaren star gives up F1 dream

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

F1 Lewis Hamilton Adrian Newey Michael Schumacher Jacques Villeneuve Jenson Button