The seven-time world champion delighted Italian followers along with his debut behind the wheel of a 2023-specification F1 Ferrari at Fiorano.
Lewis Hamilton, Method One’s most profitable driver of all time, waved to a crowd of ready followers as he drove a Ferrari racing automotive for the primary time since becoming a member of the Italian workforce for the 2025 season.
Hamilton was behind the wheel of a 2023-specification Ferrari SF-23 bearing his racing quantity, 44, on the workforce’s Fiorano check observe on Wednesday and wore a brand new helmet design in yellow with a outstanding Prancing Horse emblem.
The 40-year-old British driver set out for his first lap at 9:16am native time in gentle fog and twice waved to a crowd of about 1,000 spectators, who had gathered on a close-by bridge regardless of the chilly and moist climate.
Hamilton moved to Ferrari for the 2025 season after 12 years with Mercedes, the place he gained six of his seven world titles. He has stated he’s fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I’ve been fortunate sufficient to have achieved issues in my profession I by no means thought potential, however a part of me has all the time held on to that dream of racing in purple. I couldn’t be happier to grasp that dream at this time,” he stated on Monday after arriving at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters.
F1 tightly restricts groups from testing current-specification automobiles, however the guidelines are looser for older automobiles just like the SF-23 that Hamilton drove on Wednesday. Official preseason testing for the brand new season’s automobiles begins in Bahrain on February 26 and can proceed until February 28.
Hamilton will associate with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, who’ve been and not using a driver’s title since 2007 however hope to vary that within the 2025 season, which begins with the Australian Grand Prix, scheduled from March 14 to 16.
