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Lewis Hamilton could not hide his excitement as he walked among the road cars in the ‘heritage section’ of Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello, Italy. As he spotted a bright red Ferrari F40, one of the rarest of the manufacturer’s road cars, in the middle of the floor, he paused. Spreading his hands across the rear spoiler, a smile engulfed his face. He’d found his favorite.
The moment he had dreamed about since childhood, becoming a Ferrari driver, had finally arrived. The F40 housed in the ‘old’ side of Ferrari’s factory – the headquarters is split between the historic part of the facility, noted by its yellow buildings and walls, and the ‘new’ side that is red – was wheeled through the Italian drizzle to the Piazza Michael Schumacher, named after the great who won five of his seven F1 titles for Ferrari.
Hamilton met with Vasseur and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna before posing for photos outside the house next to the F40. Even Hamilton’s outfit for the day had been carefully planned by his stylist, Eric McNeal, right down to his red-soled Louboutin boots. The first official pictures of Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari F1 driver, quickly went viral and became the most-liked photo on F1’s Instagram page in less than 24 hours, as well as gracing all the front pages of the Italian sports newspapers the next morning.
A lot rests on 2025 for both Ferrari and Hamilton. Ferrari missed out on its first constructors’ championship since 2008 by just 14 points, while Hamilton is still searching for a record-breaking eighth world title. His struggles with the Mercedes car through 2024 made for a season of lagging behind his teammate George Russell. Shaking off that funk and proving he still has the edge that once made him near-impossible to beat at the peak of his powers in F1 is a critical part of this move.
It made Hamilton’s time getting to know his new colleagues through a factory tour and subsequent meetings on Monday and Tuesday vitally important. Hamilton always took strength from the closeness of his relationships with his teammates at Mercedes, particularly with his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, who he likened to a brother. Taking over that role will be Riccardo Adami, who was the engineer for Carlos Sainz (the Spaniard affectionately nicknamed Adami ‘Ricky’) as well as four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, and will now be the voice on the end of the radio to Hamilton through races.
Driving a two-year-old F1 car on a misty, cold day around a short test circuit may not have the hallmarks of a special moment, but for Hamilton, this was a day he had dreamt of since playing as Michael Schumacher on video games as a teenager, wondering what it might be like to be in the cockpit of the red car someday.
Just as it was for Schumacher at Fiorano at the end of 1995 ahead of his move to Ferrari for the following season, Hamilton’s maiden outing was both understated and poignant. After changing into his new red race suit in Enzo Ferrari’s house, Hamilton walked over to the simple garage setup next to the track, no bigger than a gas station forecourt (and branded like one, thanks to team partner Shell) and was greeted by his team. As the engineers ran through the processes, Hamilton scribbled down things to remember into a small notebook.
At 9:16 a.m., Hamilton peeled out of the garage and onto the track. At last, he was a Ferrari F1 driver. Fans and TV cameras had gathered at a couple of vantage points overlooking Fiorano to catch a glimpse of the famous #44 emblazoned on the Ferrari, including one on a bridge next to a busy road. No length is too great for the tifosi.
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