Lewis Hamilton move causes Ferrari stock price to skyrocket by $7 billion

Ferrari’s stock price has increased by a value of $7 billion due to Lewis Hamilton’s move.

The Formula 1 was rocked on Thursday by unexpected news that Hamilton will join Ferrari in 2025.

It is the most seismic driver switch since Hamilton swapped McLaren for Mercedes in 2013.

Ferrari stock increased in value by 7% pre-market, after hours of talk about Hamilton, sports-business expert Joe Pompliano reported.

He added: “The Mercedes F1 team received about 25% of all TV time during its championship-winning seasons, and its valuation increased from $400 million to $2.7 billion.”

Karun Chandhok, ex-F1 driver and Sky Sports broadcaster, earlier wrote: “The power of the Lewis Hamilton brand…

“Ferrari’s share price has jumped 6% today - on a market cap of 66 billion, his news is worth $4 billion!”

But the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday revealed the numbers had grown even further.

Ferrari's estimated market capitlisation on Thursday was worth $69.12 billion compared to $62.4 billion at the close of Wednesday's trading, almost $7 billion more. It may grow further still.

Ferrari were already the most valuable F1 team despite their winless run without a championship stretching back to 2007.

The Italian team was valued at $3.13 billion last year by Sportico.

Second-placed Mercedes were worth $2.7 billion and third-placed Red Bull were valued at $2.42 billion.

Ferrari’s financial muscle has been flexed twice within the space of the week through driver contracts.

Firstly, Charles Leclerc was tied down to a new “multi-year” agreement.

Now Hamilton will follow him through the doors of Maranello.

Hamilton was paid $55m last season by Mercedes and Leclerc earned $19m from Ferrari in the list of F1 driver salaries. Both of those pay-days will inevitably soar in the coming years.

It will likely result in Ferrari having the most expensive driver line-up on the grid next season in terms of salaries, although that depends on who Red Bull opt to hire alongside Max Verstappen.