As the long winter months drag on with just the Dakar Rally to quench motorsport enthusiasts thirst for action, Ferrari are bending over backwards to accommodate their new Formula One superstar driver, Lewis Hamilton.

The seven times world champion is being given the Maranello red carpet treatment as he begins the final chapter of his F1 journey with the sport’s most iconic racing team. Hamilton is no stranger to working with the Scuderia boss, Fred Vasseur given their successful partnership back in Lewis’ GP2 championship winning days before his step up into F1 with McLaren.

Hamilton, unhappy with his one year deal agreed with Mercedes late in 2023, accepted the offer from Ferrari group chairman John Elkann to ‘pick up the phone’ during last year’s winter break. And whilst he is not the preferred choice of Vasseur who stated he wished to retain Sainz and Leclerc before the bombshell from Hamilton dropped, the boss of Italy’s national racing team is bending over backwards to accommodate the seven times world champion.

 

 

 

Hamilton awarded Leclerc testing mileage

Frivolous comparisons have been made between Hamilton’s future and Michael Schumacher’s time at Ferrari, yet for any F1 fan with a modicum of historical knowledge Lewis who turns 40 years of age this month is more akin to the Schumacher who returned from retirement with Mercedes and was beaten hands down by upstart Nico Rosberg.

Even though widespread expectations are that Hamilton will suffer at the hands of his team mate Charles Leclerc, Ferrari are pulling out all the stops for what is a the dream collaboration for global marketing opportunities. Lewis has been afforded the private use of Enzo’s house in Fiorano, something only reserved previously for the great Michael Schumacher.

This indeed was a statement of intent issued by the team as Ferrari attempt to integrate their latest F1 world champion into the family. This is a well worn path for the Scuderia who have previously settled on ex-world champion drivers to command their future in the form of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, yet unlike Samson they each seemed incapable of bringing down the roof for one last great hurrah.

Just in case Ferrari’s commitment to making things work with the ageing world champion appear to be token-esque, the team revealed lewis’ testing programme will be the most extensive the team can offer. With a change in the FIA regulations concerning the testing of previous cars (TPC), each team is now allocated a limit of 1000km per season, for all of its full time drivers.

Cadillac F1 entry sparks debate over unfair FIA license criteria

 

 

 

A week in Barcelona for ‘familiarisation’

Ferrari have indicated the entire 1000km limit will be used to familiarise Lewis Hamilton with the 2022 and 2023 Ferrari F1 cars. This leaves Charles Leclerc with no TPC allowance for 2025 and is a statement to the F1 world that Ferrari are serious about rehabilitating the world’s once fastest driver.

The testing schedule for Lewis has been laid out by the Scuderia and it will include two days in Fiorano on Feb 20/21 which will be followed by a full week where the team takes over the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona in an attempt to familiarise Hamilton with the entire race weekend crew.

Of course Hamilton could easily clock up the 1000 kilometre allowance in a single day, but the testing is less about making Lewis feel comfortable in the previous Ferrari cars, but to make him Geel at home with the way that Ferrari goes about its F1 racing.

There are those who believe Hamilton will find a reset in this move from his Mercedes family and that the once all conquering F1 driver will reemerge from his shell. Even the fact that Ferrari have shifted the concept behind their front suspension design appears to favour Hamilton’s driving style, which is said to be more akin to Leclerc, than was Sainz’s.

Leclerc stopped of testing mileage for Hamilton

 

 

 

Hamilton gets relocated cockpit as demanded

Yet the most telling of all moves from Ferrari to make Hamilton feel at home emerged this week as the team adjust the design of their 2025 F1 challenger. TJ13 reported last week, that the cockpit positioning has been redesigned with Hamilton in mind following his most vocal of outbursts at his Mercedes team in 2023.

“Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car,” said Hamilton at the start of the European racing season. “Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.

“And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.

Within days Mercedes’ technical director Mike Elliot was redeployed, ultimately to leave the team just a few months later. Hamilton claimed the seating position of the W14 was all wrong and placed too far forward for his liking. Yet analysis of the original F1 ground effect cars which ran from 1978-1982 reveals the driving position required was forward in the extreme, with the pilots sitting on top of the front axle.

Verstappen sets out conditions to stay at Red Bull

 

 

 

Ferrari DNA may suit Lewis better than Mercedes

Never the less, in a further attempt to make Hamilton feel at home in Maranello, Ferrari are believed to have addressed this issue which appears to irritate Lewis to the point of distraction. The positioning of the cockpit has been moved rearwards by the head of chases design, Loic Serra, who left Mercedes last October and is now in charge in Maranello.

There appears hope even outside the circled wagons in Italy, that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari will reignite his fading career. Veteran F1 journalist Mark Hughes explains to The Race why the 2025 Ferrari car design may suit Hamilton better than the last three delivered by Mercedes.

“There’s a feasible reason why Lewis has struggled with this particular Mercedes, to do with how little it pitches and dives and how that sort of really doesn’t work with the way he naturally likes to drive the car,” states Hughes.

“The Ferrari doesn’t seem to be quite so extreme in that and seems to be a car that you can hustle on corner entry as Charles Leclerc showed many times.

“So that’s the trait of last year’s car and it’s something which has been in the Ferrari DNA for the last three or four years. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was in the 2025 car as well. So that being the case, will it dovetail well with Lewis’s driving style? If so, I think we’re in for an incredible competition between them.”

The alternative narrative is that Hamilton cannot adapt sufficiently to the all new ground effect cars introduced in 2022. If this is the case it presumably signals the end of Hamilton’s glorious career, as the ground effect design will be carried forward into the all new car designs for 2026.

“Hamilton owes Ferrari honesty about his pace and motivation”

 

 

 

 

The ‘Sergio Perez’ of 2025 predicts F1 car designer

Sergio Perez became the laughing stock in the Formula One paddock in 2024. In fact amusement turned to embarrassment as senior F1 media folk questioned how much more the Mexican could take of the negative publicity surrounding him as he limped home in last at his final home grand prix in Mexico.

The team explained their decision to retain Checo following the summer break being due to the fact that some of his favourite circuits were coming up. Previous wins in Singapore and Baku had proven Perez to be something of a street circuit expert, yet his dismal 21 points across the final ten race weekends saw the end of season review of Red Bull’s driver pairing decide enough was enough.

Liam Lawson now has the admirable task of partnering Max Verstappen for the coming F1 campaign and team advisor Dr. Helmet Marko has already set the young driver’s targets – to be within three tenths of his team mate in qualifying and during the race…  READ MORE