Lewis Hamilton has accomplished his first outing as a Ferrari driver throughout a testing of earlier automobile (TPC) on the group’s Fiorano take a look at observe.
The seven-time world champion has been at Maranello all week as he begins work together with his new group, making the transfer after 12 seasons with Mercedes. Following a number of conferences with the varied departments, Hamilton was pictured in his new colours on Tuesday evening after which launched his 2025 helmet design — a return to his iconic yellow used earlier in his profession — on Wednesday morning earlier than his first run at Fiorano.
A putting yellow to finish the 2025 look 💛 pic.twitter.com/K9rmYWf9t1
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 22, 2025
Amid early morning fog, Hamilton took to the observe a 09:16am native time in Ferrari’s 2023 automobile — the SF-23 — finishing early set up laps on moist tires earlier than switching to slicks later within the morning.
With a whole bunch of followers in attendance making an attempt to catch a glimpse of Hamilton behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the primary time, the take a look at performs an vital position within the 40-year-old’s preparations for the brand new season.
Hamilton has solely ever pushed Mercedes-powered vehicles in his Method 1 profession, so might want to adapt to any new methods of working from Ferrari’s technical group. Energy unit settings that may be modified from the steering wheel can differ considerably from one producer to a different, as can drivability and mode choices.
The take a look at may even permit Hamilton to check his seating place and luxury, to be able to iron out any points forward of the official pre-season take a look at in Bahrain subsequent month. Drivers solely get a day and a half of working every throughout the Feb. 26-28 take a look at, and groups can’t afford to lose observe time throughout that week because of set up points.
Though Hamilton is ready to take a look at a two-year-old automobile, he’s restricted to 4 days and a complete of 1000km of such working throughout the season as he’s one among Ferrari’s race drivers. As a group, Ferrari can perform 20 days of TPC working in whole in any calendar yr.
Curiosity in Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari has been large, notably in Italy, as he appears to be like to safe a record-breaking eighth drivers’ championship to maneuver away from Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.
