Lewis Hamilton declared ‘back in the game’; Audi complete €600m deal – round-up

We’ve got the answers to all these questions in more in our F1 news round-up for 18 Jan, 2025.

Benedetto Vigna, the Ferrari chief executive, has declared that Lewis Hamilton is “back in the game” following his move from Mercedes for the F1 2025 season.

And he has described Hamilton’s new year’s message on LinkedIn as “beautiful”, seeing it is an indication of the seven-time World Champion’s willingness to embrace a new culture at a late stage of his F1 career.

Audi F1 has confirmed to PlanetF1.com that it has completed its full takeover of the existing Sauber team ahead of the F1 2025 season.

Audi’s official F1 entry is less than a year away, with the German manufacturer announcing in 2022 that it would take over the current Sauber team in time for the sport’s new era in F1 2026.

Rumours this week have linked Red Bull driver Max Verstappen with a sensational £1billion switch to Aston Martin for the F1 2026 season.

And Racing Bulls chief executive Peter Bayer has revealed that he has fielded offers around that figure for the entire team, let alone a single driver.

Gary Gannon, the former race engineer to Romain Grosjean, Mick Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg at Haas, has become the latest big name to join Aston Martin ahead of the F1 2025 season.

Gannon, who previously worked for the now-defunct Marussia team for three years between 2011 and 2014, has become one of the most recognisable voices over team radio over recent years.