
Graham Read
Formula 1 Correspondent
12:58 PM 22nd January 2025
sports
Lewis Hamilton Makes His Ferrari Debut
![This morning Lewis Hamilton drove a Ferrari F1 car for the first time]()
This morning Lewis Hamilton drove a Ferrari F1 car for the first time
After 12 mainly successful seasons with the Brackley-based Mercedes Formula 1 team, 40-year-old Sir Lewis Hamilton has made his first official visit to his new employer, Ferrari, which has long been based at Maranello in northeast Italy. The seven-time champion surprised both Mercedes and the entire F1 world last February by triggering a release clause in his contract, allowing him to join Ferrari with effect from 1st January 2025 on a two-year deal, which was both longer and financially more rewarding than the experienced Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, had been willing to offer him.
This year Hamilton will line up alongside Ferrari’s existing favourite son, the Monégasque Charles Leclerc, and it will be fascinating to see how the duo compares in the same machinery and gets on together in the same team. Hamilton’s impending arrival had meant that the outfit was forced to drop Carlos Sainz, who had displayed similar pace to Leclerc while enjoying a close friendship with him. Meanwhile, Leclerc is determined to show Ferrari that he is quicker than Hamilton and perhaps shouldn’t be paid far less than his new teammate.
![Hamilton with an iconic Ferrari car and building]()
Hamilton with an iconic Ferrari car and building
Ferrari has a long history of utilising the services of British Formula 1 drivers, and Hamilton is the 12th to do so after the likes of Nigel Mansell, Eddie Irvine, and John Surtees, the latter being the last Brit to win the Drivers’ title for the iconic Scuderia way back in 1964. Hamilton is currently enjoying a honeymoon period with Italy’s most famous F1 team, with its enthusiastic fans, known worldwide as the Tifosi, seeing him as an incoming messiah who will at last deliver them another long-awaited Drivers’ title. Their last success on this front was with Kimi Räikkönen back in 2007.
Hamilton mania hit Maranello this week as the team’s very smartly dressed new driver posed on Monday outside Enzo Ferrari’s iconic mansion located at the outfit’s private Fiorano test track, not far from the sprawling site of the factory for both its road and racing cars, including the F1 team. Hamilton was accompanied by an iconic Ferrari F40, and this photo opportunity was followed by technical meetings and briefings with many of his new colleagues, plus time spent in the team’s simulator as he adjusted to the characteristics of driving a Ferrari after so many years behind the wheel of a Mercedes.
![Conditions were misty for this morning’s ontrack debut]()
Conditions were misty for this morning’s ontrack debut
This morning, though, it was time for Hamilton to don that famous red race suit for the first time, together with his trademark bright yellow helmet, and climb into a real Ferrari F1 car, an SF-23 from the 2023 season, before heading onto a misty Fiorano circuit, with Leclerc also joining him there. The need to use an older F1 car was due to the tight restrictions faced by all teams about testing of their latest machinery, and today was essentially classed as a filming day rather than one where outright pace was sought.
Hamilton has tended to struggle to perform competitively for Mercedes since the end of the 2021 season and was regularly outpaced last year by his teammate, George Russell, but the veteran British driver is hoping that his move to Ferrari will rejuvenate his career before retirement beckons. Many doubt the wisdom of Ferrari signing Hamilton at great cost other than for marketing reasons, while conversely many feel it could lead to a fairytale ending for him. It has to be said that the odds are heavily stacked against him, as F1 history shows that the last driver aged 40 or older to win a Drivers’ title was Jack Brabham way back in 1966, and the last driver aged 40 or older to simply win a Grand Prix was Nigel Mansell back in 1994. Time will tell, though, and Hamilton has signed his former trainer, Angela Cullen, to rejoin his Project 44 company as a physio. The now 50-year-old New Zealander had parted company with the multiple champion following the opening race of the 2023 season but has returned as part of his support team. However, Hamilton’s long-time race engineer at Mercedes, Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington, has opted not to follow him to Ferrari and will remain with Mercedes, with the Italian Riccardo Adami becoming Hamilton’s new race engineer.
![Hamilton was proud to hold his new Ferrari helmet]()
Hamilton was proud to hold his new Ferrari helmet
Ferrari’s new driver is scheduled to undertake further private testing at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya later this month to help him get fully up to speed before the official pre-season three-day test in Bahrain in late February, which will then be followed by the opening race weekend of the new season in Melbourne, Australia, in mid-March.
The new F1 campaign will be highly intriguing on so many fronts, and I’ll return to this theme as the season gets nearer, but I’ll sign off for now with some very appropriate words from Hamilton this week: “There are some days that you know you will remember forever, and today, my first as a Ferrari driver, is one of those days.” So true, Lewis.
![Angela Cullen has rejoined Hamilton’s support team]()
Angela Cullen has rejoined Hamilton’s support team