Up Next
Ferrari has finalised the next testing plans for Lewis Hamilton as they continue their preparations for their first Formula 1 season together.
Following a short acclimatisation run for Hamilton at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in Italy on Wednesday, the Briton’s next run will take place at Barcelona in Spain next week.
Ferrari has confirmed that it has booked the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from January 28-30 for a private test that will be held in an old car for both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The squad has not announced which car will be run though, as the Testing of Previous Car (TPC) regulations allows it to pick any of its recent challengers.
At Fiorano Hamilton drove the SF-23, but the team could also use its 2022 car, the F1-75, if it wanted to.
Mercedes also showed recently, with a Kimi Antonelli test at Jerez, that teams are not averse to going back to their 2020 cars, which are officially classified as historic, if they want to do more mileage.
While such a car is not useful for understanding current performance characteristics, testing in one of them can still offer value in terms of simulating working with engineers as well as processes.
After the Barcelona test later this month, Hamilton and Ferrari will return to Barcelona on February 4/5 for a Pirelli tyre test to evaluate the 2026 tyres.
Both drivers are expected to be on hard tyres in a mule car – which will be a modified version of Ferrari’s 2024 challenger that simulates the downforce and performance levels of next year’s new rules.
Hamilton completed 30 laps of Fiorano on Wednesday, which was around 89km (55 miles), after the day was impacted by fog and rain.
The weather forecast for Barcelona next week looks chilly but clear, and the team is likely to want Hamilton to put in more performance mileage than he did at Fiorano, as that will help him better understand the characteristics of the car.
Under the current testing regulations, race drivers are allowed a maximum of 1000km of running in TPC cars over the year.
Ferrari's 2025 car launch event will be on February 19, with pre-season testing starting in Bahrain on February 26.
