Photo courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari
Hamilton tests for Ferrari for first time at Fiorano
Lewis Hamilton has completed his first outing as a Ferrari driver during a testing of previous car (TPC) at the team’s Fiorano test track.
The seven-time world champion has been at Maranello all week as he begins work with his new team, making the move after 12 seasons with Mercedes. Following multiple meetings with the various departments, Hamilton was pictured in his new colors on Tuesday night and then released his 2025 helmet design -- a return to his iconic yellow used earlier in his career -- on Wednesday morning before his first run at Fiorano.
Amid early morning fog, Hamilton took to the track a 09:16am local time in Ferrari’s 2023 car -- the SF-23 -- completing early installation laps on wet tires before switching to slicks later in the morning.
With hundreds of fans in attendance trying to catch a glimpse of Hamilton behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the first time, the test plays an important role in the 40-year-old’s preparations for the new season.
Hamilton has only ever driven Mercedes-powered cars in his Formula 1 career, so will need to adapt to any new ways of working from Ferrari’s technical team. Power unit settings that can be changed from the steering wheel can differ significantly from one manufacturer to another, as can drivability and mode options.
The test will also allow Hamilton to test his seating position and comfort, in order to iron out any issues ahead of the official pre-season test in Bahrain next month. Drivers only get a day and a half of running each during the Feb. 26-28 test, and teams can’t afford to lose track time during that week due to installation issues.
Although Hamilton is able to test a two-year-old car, he is limited to four days and a total of 1000km of such running during the season as he is one of Ferrari’s race drivers. As a team, Ferrari can carry out 20 days of TPC running in total in any calendar year.
Interest in Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has been massive, particularly in Italy, as he looks to secure a record-breaking eighth drivers’ championship to move clear of Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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