Lewis Hamilton has driven a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time at his new team’s test track in Italy.
Hamilton started work at the famous Prancing Horse’s Maranello factory for the first time on Monday having left Mercedes at the end of 2024 after 12 years with the Silver Arrows.
The seven-time champion stunned F1 last February by signing for Ferrari from this year in the sport’s highest-profile transfer of all time and his maiden run in one of their iconic red cars has been eagerly anticipated since then.
And on Wednesday morning, Hamilton drove the team’s 2023 car around their Fiorano track, which is adjacent to the team’s factory.
Sky Sports News’ cameras – and reporter Craig Slater – were on hand to capture the historic moment, which occurred as Hamilton began his running at 9.16am local time in misty conditions.
Having released a first photo of Hamilton in a red race suit on Tuesday evening, Ferrari shared the Brit’s new helmet in a social media post on Wednesday morning shortly before he took to the track.
The blockbuster Hamilton-Ferrari move has united F1’s most-successful driver in history with the most-successful team.
Hamilton, who turned 40 earlier this month, has won a record 105 races and a joint-best seven world championships, while Ferrari lead the way on the all-time tables for both drivers’ (15) and constructors’ title (16) triumphs.
But the Scuderia have not won any title since 2008, although a strong end to last season saw them finish within 14 points of new constructors’ champions McLaren in second place.
A ‘historic’ first lap in Ferrari red
Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater at Fiorano:
“This is the historic first lap of Lewis Hamilton in the red Ferrari car – 105 victories, 104 poles in his career, seven world championships – he’s 40 years of age now. Can he complete what he hopes to describe as the masterpiece of his career with an eighth championship, at the most famous team in Formula 1?
“I’m jam-packed in here, there’s more than 1,000 Ferrari fans. In fact, I’m so packed in, I can’t quite see the entire number that have gathered around here to catch this first glimpse of Lewis in the red car.
“It’s the 2023 Ferrari he’s driving. The current car will be an evolution of this one, so it will be useful for Hamilton to get a feel of what Ferrari power is like. Remember, he’s driven a Mercedes-powered car for his entire F1 career.
“He’ll be able to feed back on how his seat feels – he would have had that seat fitting just a few days earlier, how the steering wheel functions, just the general feel of the brakes in what are certainly very unrepresentative conditions here.
“It’s cold, it’s under 10 degrees Celsius, there’s fog as well. He isn’t using racing Formula 1 tyres but academy tyres that are inferior in performance. But he’ll get a few impressions, which will enable him to interface with his engineers and the rest of the team.
“It’s an emotional day for Lewis, and he has got his family here. His father Anthony, his mum Carmen, his stepmother Linda as well – they’re all sharing what is a very special moment for him out on this track here.”
Why was Hamilton testing an old Ferrari and what’s the test’s purpose?
F1’s testing regulations away from race weekends have long been restricted on cost-control grounds.
All teams are still working flat-out on their new 2025 cars behind closed doors at their respective factories with just over a month to go until pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain (February 26-28).
With the latest challengers still therefore in development, Ferrari have taken advantage of the regulation that allows teams to run cars from certain recent seasons in order to give Hamilton an early taste of their working practices at the race track and the unique aspects of their cars.
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It also gives Hamilton a first chance to sample a Ferrari engine, having exclusively used Mercedes power over the first 18 years of his F1 career at first McLaren and then the German manufacturer’s own team.
The Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) rule for 2025 allows teams to run cars from the 2023, 2022 or 2021 seasons although, in a change for this year, current race drivers’ running in such machinery is capped to 1,000km across a maximum four days through the calendar year.
Ferrari are using the first of their TPC days at Fiorano.
Team boss Frederic Vasseur also indicated before Christmas that Hamilton could feature in one of Pirelli’s tyre test days in January and February.
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Source : Sky Sports
