The new era begins

Lewis’ first week in red began with his first public visit to Maranello as a Ferrari driver on Monday and he arrived to the cheers of Tifosi, set to begin his “total immersion programme” of transitioning into the world of Ferrari, as the team themselves have put it.

We got that now iconic image on socials from Lewis himself of him stood outside Enzo Ferrari’s old house in the Piazza Michael Schumacher, just next to the Fiorano test track. Ferrari had made an F40 available for the occasion, which is Lewis’ favourite supercar, but just behind this fans had noted a significance to the framing of the photo – with 7 windows shown behind Lewis and 1 door, which many commented may point to Lewis’ existing 7 titles and a door to an eighth with Ferrari.

Lewis’ caption gave some insight into how he was feeling about this “new era” – as he said, “There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever and today, my first as a Scuderia Ferrari HP driver, is one of those days.“

Beyond the photo, Lewis spent some time in Enzo Ferrari’s house being toured around by team principal Fred Vasseur and their CEO Benedetto Vigna, and took a look at the garage at Fiorano where he would be testing from in the coming days.

Lewis was then taken to ‘Scuderia HQ’, as the team put it, to meet with more management, including the Vice-Chairman of the company, Piero Ferrari who is Enzo’s son. The “daylong total immersion programme” continued over to the factory where Lewis visited the various departments and got to know the team he’ll be working with.

This also included a seat fit both in preparation for his on track test but also his simulator work, which is reported to have begun during that first week.

The programme continued with technical meetings and briefings as preparation not only for the season ahead, but also his first time on track in the Ferrari.

The debut

Ferrari hadn’t confirmed ahead of time which day the test would be taking place in an effort to keep numbers of fans down and minimise any disruption to the roads around Fiorano, specifically on an overpass which looks onto the track.

Despite these efforts, huge numbers of Tifosi had camped out overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday to get a first glimpse at their new driver and their patience paid off as Lewis set out on track at 9:16 on Wednesday morning and made his debut in a Ferrari F1 car.

Of course this test wasn’t using the new 2025 car, but instead the 2023 car, the SF-23 to cover this test under the team’s TPC or testing previous car programme.

TPC for 2025 includes cars from 2021 to 2023 and for the first time is limited in terms of distance and time that current drivers can do, and ironically it was Ferrari who played a big part in getting these restrictions placed on testing for current drivers after Max Verstappen tested the RB18 last year in Imola, right before the Spanish Grand Prix, coincidentally as Red Bull were struggling with ride height issues which raised eyebrows in the paddock, including from Fred Vasseur.

As such, TPC is now capped at 20 days a year and 4 days or 1000 kilometres for current drivers, which means teams now have to be more selective in who they run in their previous cars, and where, and when. 

This extended to Ferrari’s run of Lewis in the SF-23 in Fiorano, which was never going to be about getting up to speed, but especially so given these new regulations and the nature of Fiorano as a short, not very representative track. Instead the aim was to get Lewis used to Ferrari’s processes and controls, how the team works, how systems like the DRS may differ from what he had at Mercedes, how things around the Ferrari power unit function differently to the Mercedes powered cars he’s only ever driven before, and as an all round “warm up” as Fred Vasseur said was the “sole purpose” of the test.

On track, Lewis began on wet tyres for his installation lap given how foggy it was in Maranello, but he quickly came back in and switched to the slick Pirelli ‘Academy’ rubber, which is provided specifically for these TPC events. On these he was able to push a bit more and even locked up a few times into the hairpin given how cold it was and he also did some practice starts.

After three separate runs and 30 laps, which equates to around 89 kilometres at Fiorano, Lewis came back into the garage and did a post-session debrief with the engineers before heading out to wave to the Tifosi. In fact, Lewis commented on their support in his statement after the test, saying he already knew “how passionate the Ferrari family” was but “to witness it firsthand as a Ferrari driver” was “awe-inspiring”.

On the test overall, Lewis said it was “one of the best feelings of [his] life” and that he had the “biggest smile” on his face when he left the garage.

Who’s on Lewis’ team?

This test was our first chance to get a look into the team who’ll be surrounding Lewis as he begins this new phase of his career, including as rumours had suggested, Angela Cullen, his physiotherapist and trainer.

Angela had left F1 in mid-2023 to head over to work with Marcus Armstrong in IndyCar but after news spread on Tuesday that she’d rejoined with Lewis’ company Project 44 it became apparent that this was true and she was seen supporting Lewis in the Fiorano garage.

Angela has been credited by Lewis himself as “the single hardest-working woman that [he] get[s] to be around” and as “one of the greatest things that’s happened to [him] in [his] life”.

Another key part of a driver’s team is their race engineer, and after Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington decided to remain at Mercedes, Lewis was assigned experienced engineer Riccardo Adami, better known as ‘Ricky’ on the radio by his ex-driver Carlos Sainz, for his time at Ferrari.

Lewis has previously spoken about the importance of a race engineer for him, saying to media in Zandvoort last year that he would know “early on” whether things will work out between him and his new engineer. Riccardo was previously Carlos Sainz’s engineer and before that worked with Sebastian Vettel over his time with Ferrari but also others like Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Buemi when he worked at Toro Rosso.

The Wednesday test would have marked Riccardo and Lewis’ first time working together, giving them their first insight into what their partnership will be like and this will be a crucial factor to Lewis’ introduction to the team as we know just how important the engineer-driver relationship is to success on and off track.

Testing continues…

Ferrari are wasting no time in getting Lewis ready for the season opening Australian Grand Prix, maximising his time on track in this short pre-season period.

Earlier this week, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were on track at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in a private test. Again this was using the SF-23 and was set to take place over three days, but early on in the second day, it was reported that Lewis had crashed in the third sector of the circuit.

Hamilton was unharmed in the incident but the SF-23 had suffered damage to the suspension and bodywork after colliding with the barriers which at first delayed but then cancelled the planned afternoon run for Leclerc.

Reports then emerged that both Hamilton and Leclerc had left Barcelona, with the third day of testing on Thursday set to be completed by Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi and Ferrari Academy driver Dino Beganovic. 

Though this initial Barcelona test came to an early end, Leclerc and Hamilton will be back on track in Barcelona on February 4th and 5th, alongside McLaren, to conduct Pirelli tyre testing for the dry weather, 2026 compounds. This test is understood to involve the SF-24, though it’s unlikely that the car will be exactly as it was in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season as some modifications will have to be made to ensure the thinner 2026 tyres will fit.

Even so, the fact that these tests are being held in Barcelona will mean they’re much more representative and valuable for Hamilton as it’s somewhere he’s been driving for many years and with lots of different cars, giving him a good reference point for how the Ferraris compare to the Mercedes for example, but also giving the team a good comparison between his feeling and performance and those of previous drivers in the same cars, which will likely help them narrow in on the characteristics Hamilton likes from their cars and what might need to be changed.

Despite this opportunity for comparison and feedback, it’s highly unlikely that Ferrari will be able to take this on board for the 2025 car as it’s probably pretty much there in terms of development or build at this stage in the break. 

What comes next?

Following these tests, the next step will be the F1-75 live event on February 18th where Hamilton will be presented in the Ferrari race suit and we’ll get our first glimpse at the livery Ferrari will run for 2025 on the, now named, SF-25 car.

But the important day for the SF-25 will be February 19th, when Ferrari are hosting a filming day presumably in Fiorano using their new challenger – giving them 100 kilometres to gather promotional content for sponsors and media but also giving Charles and Lewis a taste of what they’ll be driving this coming year.

All of this will happen in the week before pre-season testing, meaning it’s a very compact and quick start to the year, but Fred Vasseur expects Lewis to manage this challenge “perfectly”.