Lewis Hamilton has reportedly had an extra test added to his F1 2025 pre-season schedule, with the new Ferrari driver set to drive the team’s 2024 car early next month.

It comes as preparations for the new F1 2026 regulations step up, with Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc set to participate in a Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona.

Lewis Hamilton to drive Ferrari SF-24 in Pirelli tyre test

Almost a year after his lucrative move from Mercedes was announced, Hamilton linked up with his new team for the first time this week with his first official visit to Ferrari’s Maranello factory.

The seven-time World Champion’s trip culminated in his first on-track outing as a Ferrari driver, with Hamilton completing 30 laps behind the wheel of the team’s 2023 car at the Fiorano test track.

Hamilton described the moment as “one of the best feelings of my life” and revealed that he had “the biggest smile on my face” as he took to the track for the first time in a Ferrari.

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Under F1’s TPC (Testing of Previous Car) rules, teams are only allowed to use cars older than two years for private test sessions to prevent them from gaining a competitive advantage during the current season.

However, multiple reports have claimed that Hamilton will get a rare chance to drive Ferrari’s 2024 car in early February in a tyre test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the home of F1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton and Leclerc are set to take to the track in Barcelona across February 4-5 with a so-called mule car – a heavily adapted version of last year’s SF-24 car – on experimental hard tyres.

The 2024 chassis has been adjusted to simulate the downforce and performance levels of the next-generation cars for F1 2026 in order to inform Pirelli’s development of the new tyres for next year.

In addition to major chassis and engines changes, which include a move to 50 per cent electrification as well as the introduction of fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics, the tyres will also be tweaked for the F1 2026 season.

Although the current 18-inch rims are to be retained for F1 2026, the tread of tyres will be reduced by 25 millimetres at the front and 30mm at the rear.

It is common for teams to produce mule cars to assist tyre development ahead of major rule changes, with Ferrari previously fielding a revised version of their 2015 car in 2016 ahead of the following year’s regulation changes.

The mule version of the SF15-T featured a larger rear wing and skirts in an attempt to simulate the increased downforce of the new cars for 2017.

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Following Ferrari’s ‘wake-up test’ at Fiorano, Hamilton and Leclerc are to drive the 2023 car again in a three-day private test in Barcelona across January 28-30.

It is believed that the team have already arrived in the Spanish city to prepare the garage for the test, with Hamilton and Leclerc expected to arrive on Monday (January 27) after simulator sessions at Maranello.

After the TPC and tyre tests in Barcelona, Hamilton and Leclerc’s packed pre-season schedule will then take them to London, where they will present Ferrari’s new livery for F1 2025 at the sport’s first-ever collective season-launch event at the O2 Arena.

Ferrari’s F1 2025 car, codenamed Project 677, will be officially launched the following day with the drivers set to participate in a short shakedown test.

Three days of official pre-season testing will then by held in Bahrain across February 26-28, with Hamilton and Leclerc expected to return to Italy to appear at a special event organised by Ferrari and new sponsor Unicredit in Milan in early March.

The pair will then jet off to Melbourne ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16.

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