The moment every Ferrari fan has been waiting for took place on Wednesday morning as Lewis Hamilton made his debut in one of the Scuderia’s Formula 1 cars.
A misty Fiorano circuit was the venue for Lewis Hamilton’s first outing in Ferrari’s 2023 car, the F1-75.
Hamilton had to make do with Ferrari’s 2022 Formula 1 car due to the sport’s increasingly strict rules for testing.
The 40-year-old is only allowed to complete 1,000 km of private testing in 2025, with Wednesday’s outing set to be shared with Charles Leclerc who will drive on Wednesday afternoon.
Since the team started teasing his upcoming debut, Ferrari fans have become increasingly excited about Hamilton’s arrival.
Unfortunately, conditions for watching Hamilton’s first laps weren’t ideal with heavy fog surrounding the track.
That didn’t deter any of the people who headed down to Fiorano in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with many arriving the day before to show their support in case the team decided to bring Hamilton’s first test forward.
Ferrari fans were already leaving messages to Hamilton and he’ll be encouraged by the level of excitement around his groundbreaking move.
Sky Sports F1 journalist Craig Slater was at the track to witness Hamilton’s debut.
He shared just how many fans had turned up to witness a small part of Ferrari’s history on a gloomy January morning in Italy.
More than one thousand Ferrari fans descend on Fiorano for Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut
Slater was speaking as Hamilton took to the track for the very first time and said: “I’m jam-packed in here, there are more than a thousand Ferrari fans, in fact, I’m so packed in I can’t quite see the entire number that have gathered around here to catch this first glimpse of Lewis in the red car.
“[There are] over a thousand Ferrari fans here and I just wonder, we’ll gauge some of their views as well.
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“But tremendous support and warmth for Lewis Hamilton and I hope that yes he can be the man to bring glory back to that team.
“Remember, they haven’t won a championship since 2007 and Kimi Raikkonen.”
When are Lewis Hamilton’s plans at Ferrari before the 2025 F1 season starts?
Due to the lack of available testing time for Hamilton before the Australian Grand Prix, much of his work will be done in the simulator.
Hamilton’s first sim session at Ferrari has already happened and he’s likely to be completing laps in their 2023 and 2024 cars on the simulator as well as the upcoming 2025 car to help his engineers fine-tune this year’s machine.
Beyond that, Hamilton will head to the Circuit de Catalunya later in January to complete more laps in either the 2022 or 2023 car.
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Hamilton might have the option to complete a third test at Magny-Cours as part of Pirelli’s 2026 tyre testing if he wants to get even more laps under his belt.
After the F1 75 event in London on 18 February, Ferrari will officially launch their car the next day.
That’s when Hamilton and Leclerc are expected to make their first outings in the 2025 car before pre-season testing begins in Bahrain.
Hamilton will share three days of testing with Leclerc in Sakhir before three practice sessions await him in Melbourne when the proper action commences.
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