Lewis Hamilton started his new life as a Ferrari driver in a record-breaking fashion on his first day at Fiorano having replaced Carlos Sainz Jr for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The move for Hamilton to replace Sainz Jr at Ferrari was a long time coming as the 40-year-old agreed to leave Mercedes for the Maranello giants last February. His first day dressed in red then finally occurred on Wednesday as Hamilton enjoyed 30 laps of Fiorano in an SF-23.
Fog hung over Ferrari’s legendary Fiorano test track as Hamilton got to grips with their 2023 car. More importantly, it gave the Briton the chance to experience the Scuderia’s power unit for the first time in his Formula 1 career plus the mechanics he will now work closely beside.
Ferrari impress Carlos Sainz Sr with parting gifts for Carlos Sainz Jr
Even before he hit Fiorano with the Prancing Horse on his car, Hamilton broke the record for the most-liked F1 picture with his first snap as a Ferrari driver stood outside of Enzo Ferrari’s house at the Scuderia’s Maranello factory. But to get Hamilton, Ferrari had to let Sainz Jr go.
Sainz Jr will race for Williams in 2025 after signing a multi-year contract with the Grove crew to remain on the Formula 1 grid after Hamilton stole his Ferrari seat with his own multi-year deal. Yet Carlos Sainz Sr does not hold any bad blood with Ferrari for not keeping his son on.
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Instead, Sainz Sr has praised Ferrari for how they dealt with Sainz Jr’s departure from the F1 team. The rally icon also claims that it was Hamilton who sought out Sainz Jr’s drive and left Ferrari with having to let a driver they were happy with leave to get a seven-time champion.
“I wouldn’t describe it as the Scuderia behaving badly,” Sainz Sr has explained on El Cafelito. “The circumstances of the perfect storm have arisen. Ferrari were happy with Carlos but the possibility appeared because Hamilton himself produced it.
“It is he who approached Ferrari, then the circumstances arose. Perhaps that process could have been clearer, but then it would have been leaked and Ferrari did not want it to be.
“But then they had a fantastic detail with [Sainz Jr], a gesture that they have not had with practically any driver in their history, which is the farewell. They gave him a car, they invited me to drive in Fiorano with a Formula 1 [car].”
Ferrari gifted Carlos Sainz Jr his 2022 British Grand Prix-winning F1-75 car
Ferrari gave Sainz Jr his F1-75 with which the Spaniard won his maiden Formula 1 race at the 2022 British Grand Prix at Silverstone following his departure to make way for Hamilton. The Scuderia also allowed Sainz Sr to drive an F1-75 at Fiorano as Ferrari bid farewell to Sainz Jr.
It was a touching tribute and a sign of the respect towards Sainz Jr that Sainz Sr says Ferrari still hold for his son, despite opting against renewing his contract past the 2024 season to sign Hamilton. Although, nowadays, it is not necessarily the rare act that Sainz Sr claims it is.
Ferrari also gave Kimi Raikkonen his SF71H with which he won the 2018 United States Grand Prix with after the Finn retired from Formula 1. Like Sainz receiving his first race-winning car, the 2018 US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas marked Raikkonen’s last of 21 F1 wins.
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