Denver Broncos owner makes major change in his main sport

Sir Lewis Hamilton won’t be retiring from his day job to join the Denver Broncos ownership suite anytime soon.

It’s been widely reported on Thursday morning that the legendary race car driver will leave Mercedes-Benz at the end of the 2024 season, his 12th with the team, and join Ferrari. Hamilton is the winningest driver in the sport’s history and is tied for the most world championships ever captured at seven.

Hamilton bought into the Broncos in August of 2022 with a minority stake and many assumed that the 39-year-old was nearing his post-racing career. Not only diversifying his assets but further laying his roots in Colorado, where he lives in Avon during his sport’s offseason.

That will be on hold now for some time as Hamilton is readying for the fabled racing brand Ferrari. There he will team up with Charles LeClerc, following in the footsteps of recent big names like Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel who have moved into red later in their careers. For many the move this time is a shock, given Hamilton is heavily associated with Mercedes-Benz, building the team up, and has been rivals with Ferrari and their drivers for much of his nearly two-decade-long career.

Ferrari has competed in Formula 1 every single year, and its appeal is massive despite not having a driver win a world title since 2007 with Raikkonen. Hamilton’s seven titles is on top of the leaderboard with Schumacher’s. And Hamilton can join racing pioneer Juan Manuel Fangio as a champion on three separate teams.

With new F1 rules in place beginning in 2021, Mercedes and Hamilton’s performance has dropped way off the pace of the now-champion Red Bull and Max Verstappen. But both the team and driver seemed to gain positive momentum at the end of 2023. In 2024, many expect Mercedes and Hamilton to at the very least compete for more podiums if not race wins. Meanwhile, Ferrari has had a fast car since the rule changes but has struggled with team strategy and consistency from their drivers. More giant rule changes are coming to the sport in 2026—though that may be some time away and Hamilton will be in his 40s— longtime rival Alonso is proving right now that Hamilton could still be contending atop the sport for several years to come.