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Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari Formula 1 era begins this week with his first visit to Maranello and his first test.
The seven-time world champion’s first appearance at Ferrari’s famous base, and his maiden run in one of its cars, has been long-awaited as Hamilton had to see out his Mercedes contract until the end of December.
That denied Hamilton the chance to drive the most recent Ferrari in the post-season Abu Dhabi test, and with his first official days set for late January, even Ferrari has had to get by only teasing the beginning of its Hamilton-Charles Leclerc partnership with various social media posts referencing their 44 and 16 race numbers.
Set your watches ⏰ pic.twitter.com/rbdhFGIklD
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 19, 2025
This week their work together begins in earnest with Hamilton’s first days at the factory, which should include driving a 2023 Ferrari at the Fiorano circuit close to Ferrari's Maranello base.
More on Hamilton's first day here.
Hamilton is at Maranello on Monday although the Italian media reports that the test is unlikely to start before Wednesday as it is expected that Hamilton will spend a couple of days meeting team members, conducting a seat fit, and preparing on the simulator.
Concerns of weather interrupting the test meant the date has been kept flexible, and Ferrari is keeping a lid on its exact plans to avoid fans flocking to either Maranello or Fiorano.
THE TESTS EXPLAINED
Hamilton is expected to drive the 2023 Ferrari, which is the most recent car that is permitted under F1’s testing restrictions.
F1’s rules allow testing of cars that are at least two years old, which means after an extensive programme with its 2022 car last year Ferrari’s able to wheel out the 2023 car for Hamilton in January.
These regulations have become more restrictive for 2025 after concerns from some teams, including Ferrari, that others were exploiting those opportunities to perform the most relevant tests possible with active drivers.
As Hamilton is one of Ferrari’s 2025 race drivers, his mileage is limited in the 2023, which must be used with Pirelli’s so-called Academy tyres – a different, worse specification to the race compounds.
Across the 20 days of old car running permitted by the rules, Ferrari can complete a maximum of four days using drivers entered in the championship, with a limit of 1,000 kilometres over the year.
This can include running at a track that appears on the 2025 calendar but only if it’s more than 60 days before that race event starts and F1 raced at the track last year. Corriere della Sera claims Hamilton will then drive again later this month in Barcelona, a much more representative circuit than Ferrari’s own, as he builds up his preparations.
Leclerc is likely to take part in the tests as well, although the rules stop Ferrari running two cars at the same time, so if he joins Hamilton they will be sharing a car.
WHAT HAMILTON’S LEARNING
Unlike other drivers changing teams for 2025, Hamilton was not able to participate in the post-season Abu Dhabi test last December with Ferrari.
While that’s at least made Hamilton’s first time driving in red more special, coming at Fiorano rather than Abu Dhabi which Hamilton was not keen on, it has held things up.
He admitted at the end of last year that it would make the process harder and delay the adaptation, which is why Ferrari has been so keen to facilitate these tests and why Hamilton – typically not a fan of simulator work or testing – wanted to participate.
There is a lot that will be different about Ferrari compared to what Hamilton was so used to at Mercedes.
Even driving a slightly outdated Ferrari will help adjust to differences in seating position, brake feel and steering wheel customisation.
And the more Hamilton works with his engineering team and is in a garage, the sooner he can start building the bonds that will get the most out of himself and his colleagues, and the less likely it is that Hamilton will feel like an outsider in a team that is literally foreign to him.
Before getting behind the wheel Hamilton has a series of technical meetings and briefings with key staff scheduled across Monday and Tuesday.
His engineering team includes new race engineer Riccardo Adami, who worked with Hamilton’s predecessor Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel before that – in Italy it is reported that sought Vettel’s opinion on Adami and other Ferrari matters.
Hamilton’s first tests will also allow him to acclimatise to the Ferrari engine, as Hamilton has only known Mercedes power in his entire F1 career let alone the V6 turbo-hybrid era.
With the hybrids specifically the Ferrari package has a different performance profile to the Mercedes, historically being better with quick direction changes and initial acceleration.
WHEN WILL HE DRIVE THE 2025 CAR?
Apart from some limited opportunities in so-called ‘demonstration’ or ‘promotional’ events, this year’s F1 cars can only be driven in the official pre-season test, which is more limited than ever – just one, three-day event in Bahrain, two weeks before Australia.
Hamilton will almost certainly get into the 2025 Ferrari before Bahrain, though, with Ferrari expected to complete short runs after its launch on February 19.
The likelihood is that Ferrari will complete a short run at Fiorano with both Hamilton and Leclerc driving.
This can take the form of a demonstration event, which is heavily restricted to just 15km, or a promotional event more commonly known as filming days - which allows for a much more useful 200km of running.
Only two demonstration events and two promotional events are allowed and at least one of each is commonly used to shake down a car ahead of testing, while also capturing footage for the team and its partners.
Using a demonstration event for the initial shakedown, though, is a handy way to buy back a few more laps of more worthwhile running in a promotional event.
Driving as much as possible before the pre-season test will be useful given that it is limited to just three days, which Hamilton must share with Leclerc.
The single Bahrain test is also of less use to Hamilton than in recent years, because Bahrain is not hosting the opening race in 2025, so he does not have the continuity of previous years when the test rolled into the first race at the same circuit a few days later.
Hamilton and Ferrari know that he will not be completely comfortable by the time the season opener in Australia rolls around.
The challenge is to use the available time on track and off it to condense the learning process as much as possible – and that all starts this week.
