Ferrari have altered the cockpit position of their car for the F1 2025 season, it has been claimed, as the team prepare to welcome new signing Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes.

It comes after Hamilton complained that the cockpit of his Mercedes was too close to the front wheels in his penultimate season with the team in 2023.

Ferrari reportedly adjust cockpit position after Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes woes

Hamilton, who will turn 40 next week, has officially joined Ferrari following the end of his Mercedes contract on December 31.

The seven-time World Champion announced last February that he had signed a multi-year deal to move to Ferrari, having played a part in the most successful team/driver partnership in F1 history at Mercedes.

Hamilton claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with his previous team, as well as becoming the first driver in F1 history to surpass 100 grand prix wins and pole positions, after joining Mercedes from McLaren in 2013.

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The British driver’s decision to leave Mercedes came less than six months after he signed a two-year contract extension with the team, having activated a break clause to force his move to Ferrari for F1 2025.

It came after Hamilton suffered two consecutive winless seasons for the first time in his career across 2022/23 as Mercedes struggled to adjust to the ground-effect regulations.

Despite returning to winning ways in F1 2024 with victories in Britain and Belgium, last season proved similarly challenging for Hamilton, who struggled to match team-mate George Russell in qualifying conditions.

Having been outqualified by Russell at 19 of the 2024 races, Hamilton conceded that he is “not fast anymore” in the closing weeks of the season.

It is widely believed that Hamilton’s move to Ferrari will rejuvenate the seven-time World Champion, with high hopes for Ferrari’s F1 2025 car – codenamed Project 677 – after the team narrowly missed out on last year’s Constructors’ title.

Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal who oversaw Hamilton’s title-winning GP2 season in 2006, recently confirmed that Project 677 will be a “completely new” car for the final season of the current regulations with the team going all out to win a first World Championship since 2008.

It emerged on Tuesday, meanwhile, that Project 677 has passed the FIA’s mandatory crash tests for F1 2025, a key milestone ahead of the car’s official launch on February 19.

And it has now been claimed that the car’s seating position has been adjusted in a move likely to please Hamilton.

The Italian edition of Motorsport.com reports of “unconfirmed rumours” that the car’s cockpit has been moved “further back” compared to last year’s SF-24 for improved weight distribution, which in turn should help tyre management.

If true, this would appear to be consistent with persistent rumours since last summer that Ferrari have been planning a revised wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear wheels – for F1 2025.

Generally, a shorter wheelbase results in a more nimble car, often proving an advantage on tighter circuits such as Monaco, Hungary and Singapore.

A long-wheelbase car, meanwhile, tends to produce more potent downforce and excels at more conventional circuits with the extra surface area generating a greater aerodynamic benefit.

It is unclear if Hamilton has had any direct influence on the rumoured change, with cockpit positioning having proved to be a major irritation for the seven-time World Champion during his penultimate season with Mercedes in 2023.

Speaking at that year’s Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton outlined the uncomfortable sensation of sitting too close to the front wheels, revealing that he would have intervened if he had known how it would feel.

He said: “We sit closer to the front wheels than all the other drivers. Our cockpit is too close to the front.

“When you’re driving, you feel like you’re sitting on the front wheels, which is one of the worst feelings to feel when you’re driving a car.

“If you were driving your car at home, and you put the wheels right underneath your legs, you would not be happy when you’re approaching the roundabout.

“It just really changes the attitude of the car and how you perceive its movement and it makes it harder to predict compared to when you’re further back and you’re sitting closer, more centre.

“It’s just something I’ve really struggled with.”

“I listened to the team and that was the direction that they said that we should go. Had I known the feeling that I would have in it, it wouldn’t have happened.

“And it has to change for the future, 100 per cent.”

The reported change to the cockpit positioning is the latest Project 677 design detail to have emerged since last summer, with a return to a pullrod front suspension for the first time since 2015 arguably the most significant.

A pullrod front suspension – favoured by the likes of 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 predecessor Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari are also set to retain their divisive pullrod rear suspension layout despite the departure of former technical director Enrico Cardile during the F1 2024 season.

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 impressive tyre management.

Cardile, who has joined Aston Martin, claimed Ferrari found no significant performance differences between a pullrod and pushrod rear suspension layout when asked by media including PlanetF1.com at the launch of the SF-24 in February.

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

Development of the F1 2025 car 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.

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