Carlos Sainz (4-1 fav)*
With no standout frontrunner, the Spaniard is our early tip for Lewis’s vacant seat in 2025. Sainz is a two-time grand prix winner, five-time polesitter and a very consistent performer. Points mean prizes, remember. And while he’s not an elite level driver, he’d be a very capable teammate to keep George Russell honest. Plus Hamilton is the reason he’s out of work next year, so it’s only fair he gets first dibs, right?
*These TG odds are in no way representative of actual betting odds. Don’t gamble, kids!
Alex Albon (9-2)
The Thai driver is one to watch. Yes, his time at Red Bull was a disaster, but that’s been true for virtually everyone who’s shared a garage with Max Verstappen. The 27-year-old has quietly rebuilt his career (and reputation) with a series of superb drivers for Williams, and with more experience under his belt he’s far more ready for a shot at the big time than he was when Red Bull came calling a few seasons ago.
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Daniel Ricciardo (10-1)
Effectively sacked by McLaren at the end of 2022, Danny Ric’s F1 career looked finished. Then he made a sensational return with AlphaTauri (y’know, the team with the long and complicated new name) in the middle of last season, and although he didn’t set the world alight with his performances, we saw enough to be convinced that his mojo is still hiding behind that big grin somewhere. A move to Mercedes is the redemption story we all need.
Valtteri Bottas (20-1)
When you think how much Sergio Perez has struggled against Verstappen at Red Bull, it makes you realise how good Bottas actually was in his five years with Mercedes. He always qualified pretty well, took points off Merc’s main rivals, and grabbed the odd win when Lewis wasn’t in the frame. Not a bad effort against one of the quickest drivers ever. And what thanks did he get? A string of one-year contracts. Come on Toto, time to put things right: the Bring Back Bottas campaign starts now.
Fernando Alonso (33-1)
You know we had to go there. He may be nearing pension age, but Alonso proved last season that he’s lost none of his guile as a driver. Several podium finishes (and that epic defensive drive in Brazil) with the resurgent Aston Martin attest to that. The Spaniard has effectively been blocked from joining Mercedes by Lewis’s mere presence (they were teammates once - you may recall that it didn’t end well), but now that Hamilton is joining Ferrari the coast is finally clear. Plus he has a great rapport with Russell, so there’d be no internal drama for at least a week. This was El Plan all along, folks!
Lando Norris (40-1)
Can you imagine how Norris must be feeling right now? There are no seats open at the top teams, so you sign a new contract to stay where you are for another few years… and SIX days later all hell breaks loose. The poor bloke must be kicking himself. However, things like exit clauses exist and his contract might have one. And if Merc is desperate for a highly rated driver they might well throw a tonne of money McLaren’s way to make it so. Stranger things have happened. Yesterday, arguably.
Charles Leclerc (50-1)
Spare a thought also for Charles Leclerc: he too put pen to paper on a long-term contract with Ferrari, and a week later he finds out that he’ll be sharing the famous red car with the most successful driver in F1 history. Good luck son, you’ll need it. Toto Wolff has openly said Leclerc is who he’d go after if Hamilton ever left Mercedes. We’ll soon find out how committed he is to that theory…
Sebastian Vettel (100-1)
It’d be perfect, wouldn’t it? Hamilton always said that Vettel would come back to F1, and now he’s given him the golden opportunity to do exactly that. The four-time world champion has only been out of the game for a year, and surely there’s only so many eco projects a person can launch before the allure of a 200mph race car starts to tug again? Come on Seb, for old time’s sake…
Mick Schumacher (250-1)
It has fate written all over it. Mick Schumacher was Mercedes’ reserve driver last season, but more romantically, Mercedes was his dad’s last F1 team. Sure, his two year stint with Haas suggests he’d get on first name terms with a lot of the Tecpro barriers, but what’s a bit of carbon fibre versus seeing the Schumacher name back where it belongs at the pinnacle of F1?
Nico Rosberg (500-1)
Won the world championship in 2016 and realised he’d probably never do it again, so retired on the spot. But after eight years of being an entrepreneur-slash-YouTuber, this is Rosberg’s chance to come back and prove it wasn’t a fluke. Or at the very least get in Hamilton’s way so that his time at Ferrari is as miserable as possible. Driving around in a Rimac Nevera should’ve kept him sharp, too.
Max Verstappen (1,000-1)
Picture the scene: it’s November 2024 and Red Bull is bottom of the constructors’ standings having failed to score a point all season; Sergio Perez leads the head-to-head 23-0 in both qualifying and the races; Adrian Newey is leaving to design rockets for Space X. Verstappen concludes that Mercedes is his only salvation, and it just so happens that they have a vacant seat… you never know.
Lewis Hamilton (5,000-1)
Surely it isn’t out of the question that Lewis wakes up one morning and realises that he really did agree to drive for F1’s chief comedy squad? You know, the one that hasn’t won a title of any sort since 2008 and makes strategy decisions like its pit wall is filled with members of zany panel shows? Let him and Toto Wolff hug it out and agree to whoop everyone’s backsides in 2025. Assuming Red Bull can be caught by then, of course.
Note: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
