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The announcement that Lewis Hamilton will drive for Ferrari in 2025 was, at the very least, a shock.
It was the sort of news that did not sound real when you first heard it.
F1's statistically greatest driver is joining F1's statistically most successful team.
Hamilton in Ferrari red. The man many credit as the greatest to ever race in F1 will sit in the seat that folklore says every driver wishes they could be in.
The excitement, romance, anticipation and intrigue will be so gargantuan, that some fans may want to skip 2024 altogether and move straight on to 2025.
But once the initial shock and emotion wears off, curiosity and confusion can wander into one's mind.
Why would Hamilton, who has won six championships with Mercedes, leave and join a Ferrari outfit that has disappointed and failed to achieve its lofty standards for 15 years?
While only Hamilton knows the true answer, it would be hard not to think legacy and history is on his mind.
F1 is a hybrid between a team and individual sport.
A great team is needed to build the car and a great driver is needed to convert that hard work into winning races.
One cannot achieve success without the other.
But while prize money in F1 is given out based on the constructors' world championship, the prestige for drivers is what they achieve on track.
Lewis Hamilton has achieved more than most.
He holds the record for most wins (103), most pole positions (104) and most podiums (197).
And he is equal with the legendary Michael Schumacher for the most world drivers' championships with seven.
Emphasis on the word "equal".
In the pursuit of history and legacy, there is no time for equal. There is the best and the rest.
The F1 community will never unanimously agree on who the greatest driver ever is. It is an impossible title in a sport that evolves with technology faster than most others.
But Hamilton, along with Schumacher, are two names with a claim to that ambiguous title.
While Hamilton statistically has a greater career than Schumacher, the German icon has what many consider the ultimate trump card in F1.
He won for Ferrari.
Winning for the famed Italian team earns F1 drivers an extra level of stature.
It is why so many drivers dream of the chance to wear the scarlet red racing suit.
Should Hamilton be the one to end Ferrari's title drought — much like Schumacher ended Ferrari's near two-decade drought in 2000 — he would amplify his already legendary status.
But this move — as far as legacy is concerned — was not needed.
Lewis Hamilton will retire as statistically F1's greatest driver no matter what.
But an eighth drivers' championship, making his claim as F1's greatest winner undisputed, is what this living legend desires most.
He came within touching distance of achieving it in 2021 before it was ripped away from him in controversial circumstances.
Had a late safety car in the season finale of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix not been called, as Hamilton enjoyed an insurmountable lead over Max Verstappen in the race to decide that year's champion, this move to Ferrari may never have happened.
But through the confusion and the controversy of that December evening, Verstappen passed Hamilton on the last lap, won the race, won the title and denied Sir Lewis his place in history.
Since then, Hamilton's mission has been to win that eighth title that was taken from him, but he has not had the car to do it.
The days of Mercedes having the best car on the grid were over. Red Bull and Verstappen ushered in a new era, dominating the field in historic fashion.
Hamilton's first 15 seasons in F1 had at least one race win each year. His last two have netted zero victories.
Hamilton is a born winner.
He has moved before. Once upon a time it seemed unimaginable that Hamilton, then with one world title, would drive for anyone but McLaren.
But when he felt McLaren could not produce a car that could win a championship, he moved to an unproven Mercedes team in 2013.
More than a decade has passed and Hamilton found himself in the same predicament — the car he was given could not match his determination for victory.
Despite signing a two-year contract extension, Hamilton had the option to leave at the end of 2024.
Hamilton's defection may be a sign the Mercedes era is officially over and not coming back as we remember.
Possibly Ferrari has shown him something he believes can challenge the Red Bull juggernaut.
Whatever it is, provided Hamilton and Mercedes can't catch Red Bull in 2024, the move to Ferrari is a gamble for greatness.
An acknowledgement that Hamilton does not believe Mercedes has the team or the car to make it back to the top.
He will end the most successful team-driver partnership in history in the hope that he can be the first Ferrari driver since 2007 to win the world championship.
There is risk associated with this move.
If Mercedes marched their way back to the front, with a world-class driver in George Russell, then Hamilton would have jumped from a ship that was never sinking.
But if he were to win a historic title at Ferrari it would be the crescendo to arguably the greatest career F1 has seen.
A storybook ending so many fans have dreamed of.
The critically acclaimed movie climax that becomes part of popular culture.
The final piece to the mega jigsaw puzzle.
It is the gamble Hamilton has taken in his quest to be the undisputed champion in Formula 1 history — and if anyone can hit the jackpot, it's Lewis.
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