Lewis Hamilton has accomplished his first outing as a Ferrari driver throughout a testing of earlier automotive (TPC) on the group’s Fiorano check 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 night time 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 placing 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 automotive — the SF-23 — finishing early set up laps on moist tires earlier than switching to slicks later within the morning.
With lots of of followers in attendance making an attempt to catch a glimpse of Hamilton behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the primary time, the check performs an essential function within the 40-year-old’s preparations for the brand new season.
Hamilton has solely ever pushed Mercedes-powered vehicles in his Components 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 check can even enable Hamilton to check his seating place and luxury, so as to iron out any points forward of the official pre-season check in Bahrain subsequent month. Drivers solely get a day and a half of operating every in the course of the Feb. 26-28 check, and groups can’t afford to lose observe time throughout that week resulting from set up points.
Though Hamilton is ready to check a two-year-old automotive, he’s restricted to 4 days and a complete of 1000km of such operating in the course of the season as he’s one in all Ferrari’s race drivers. As a group, Ferrari can perform 20 days of TPC operating in complete in any calendar 12 months.
Curiosity in Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari has been huge, significantly in Italy, as he appears to be like to safe a record-breaking eighth drivers’ championship to maneuver away from Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.
