Lewis Hamilton has received a welcome gift on his first day as a Ferrari driver with reports that Project 677, the team’s F1 2025 car, has passed the FIA’s mandatory crash tests.

Today (January 1) marks Hamilton‘s first day as a Ferrari driver, having announced ahead of last season that he had agreed a multi-year contract to join the Italian team from F1 2025.

Ferrari F1 2025 car passes FIA crash tests as Lewis Hamilton arrives

Hamilton’s arrival from Mercedes sees the most decorated driver in F1 history, with a joint-record seven World Championships and more than 100 race wins and pole positions to his name, link up with the sport’s most successful team.

The British driver, who will turn 40 next week, is not expected to start work with Ferrari until later this month, with a private two-day test expected to take place at the team’s Fiorano test track across January 21-22.

Ferrari have traditionally held a so-called ‘wake-up’ test at Fiorano in January, targeted at getting team and both drivers up to speed behind the wheel of a previous car ahead of official pre-season running in February.

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Despite enjoying their most successful season in years in F1 2024, falling just 14 points short of McLaren in the Constructors’ title race, team principal Fred Vasseur recently revealed that Project 677 will be a “completely new” car for the final year of the current regulations.

And it has emerged that Ferrari have reached a key milestone in their preparations for F1 2025, with the car passing the mandatory FIA crash tests and gaining homologation for the new season.

A number of design details related to Project 677 have surfaced over recent months, with the move to a pullrod front suspension layout for the first time since 2015 the most significant to have emerged to date.

A pullrod front suspension – favoured by McLaren and Red Bull – is believed to enhance airflow towards the car’s complex underbody, with the floor generating a significant proportion of the car’s overall downforce under the current ground-effect regulations.

The move towards a pullrod front suspension is said to have been directly influenced by Hamilton’s arrival, with his driving style closer in nature to new team-mate Charles Leclerc than his predecessor Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari are also set to retain their divisive pullrod rear suspension layout despite the departure of former technical director Enrico Cardile last year.

Ferrari and customer outfit Haas are the only two teams still competing with a pullrod rear suspension, with their rivals all opting for a pushrod layout.

Ferrari are understood to view the pullrod rear suspension as a key factor behind the 2024 car’s excellent tyre management.

Cardile, who announced that he will join Aston Martin in July 2024, revealed the team found no significant performance differences between a pullrod and pushrod rear suspension layout when asked by media including PlanetF1.com at the launch of last year’s SF-24.

A revised wheelbase and adjustments to the internal mechanisms of the gearbox are also set to feature on Project 677.

Development of the 2025 Ferrari is being led by former Mercedes engineer Loic Serra, who was appointed to the role of chassis technical director ahead of his Ferrari arrival in October having initially been recruited to work under Cardile.

Serra is understood to be close to Hamilton, having shared the driver’s reservations over the failed zero-pod design concept pursued by Mercedes under former technical director Mike Elliott across 2022/23.

Ferrari confirmed last month that Project 677 will be unveiled on February 19, one day after F1’s first-ever season-launch event involving all 10 teams in London.

A brief shakedown run is likely to take place at Fiorano in the aftermath of the launch, with Hamilton and Leclerc getting their first taste of the F1 2025 car.

Mercedes opted to run a black livery across Hamilton’s final five years with the team, discarding their traditional silver colour scheme in support of the seven-time World Champion’s off-track campaigning.

Speaking at last year’s Canadian GP, Hamilton dismissed suggestions that he would encourage Ferrari to switch to a black livery for F1 2025 but teased that he will continue his “impact” work alongside Ferrari president John Elkann.

Asked if he had considered requesting a black Ferrari for F1 2025, Hamilton said: “I haven’t driven a black car for a while, so I probably won’t be pushing for that too early on, but no.

“We’ve definitely spoken about impact work and John and the team have a lot of philanthropy work that they do, so we’ll be working very closely with Mission 44 and with the impact stuff that they’re doing.

“I think within the sport, we have to continue to do more, but more outside we’ll be doing quite a bit together, so that’s really exciting.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently confirmed that the Brackley-based team will retain a black livery in the new W16 for F1 2025 despite the departure of Hamilton.

Wolff told Channel 4: “He made us kneel when we needed to do it. He helped us to do the car black and it’s going to stay black.

“We’re not bailing out of there.”

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