Renault's Fernando Alonso will replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari next season, the Italian team said yesterday.
Spain's Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, has signed a three-year deal and will partner Felipe Massa next year.
"We are very pleased to welcome to our team a winning driver, who has demonstrated his extraordinary worth by already claiming two world titles in his career," Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali said in a statement.
"Fernando has an exceptional personality and we will do everything to give him and Felipe a competitive car. We are certain these two drivers will form the best possible double-act for a team like ours.
"Having said that, we want to thank Kimi for what he has done with Ferrari."
Raikkonen, who won the 2007 world championship in his first season with the Italians, had one year left on his Ferrari contract but has been linked in the media with a return to McLaren.
Massa has been out of action since fracturing his skull at July's Hungarian Grand Prix but has already started karting and is expected to be fit for the start of next season, if not before.
Giancarlo Fisichella, filling in for Massa this season, will be Ferrari's reserve driver next year.
Alonso's move to Ferrari will give the F1 driver merry-go-round the big push that everyone has been waiting for.
The deal took nobody by surprise with Spain's Marca newspaper saying Alonso would be paid around €20 million a year, some seven million less than Raikkonen was said to be getting.
Raikkonen is now expected to join Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in a line-up of champions.
That will force fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen to look elsewhere.
Of the top teams, only Red Bull have their line-up confirmed with Australian Mark Webber again partnering German Sebastian Vettel.
Elsewhere, after a year that has already seen two drivers replaced and a third ruled out by injury, there is only uncertainty.
BMW-Sauber's Polish driver Robert Kubica is seen as the frontrunner to replace Alonso at Renault after confirming last week that the team was one of his options.
Other widely predicted moves are for Germany's Nico Rosberg to switch from Williams to Brawn, with Mercedes likely to increase their involvement in that team.
That deal may not be announced for some time however, with both Brawn drivers fighting for this year's world championship.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, 15 points adrift of British team-mate Jenson Button, could go from Brawn to Williams to partner Germany's GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg, who has been the team's reserve driver.