Lewis Hamilton sampled Ferrari’s car for the 2024 Formula 1 season for the first time at the Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona on Wednesday as he gets ready for the 2025 term.
The Briton has already racked up an extensive number of laps early in his Scuderia career, as Hamilton gets settled into his new life as a Ferrari driver. Moving to Maranello after 12 years with Mercedes has ensured the 40-year-old has had to learn a lot of new things very quickly.
Formula 1’s Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme let Hamilton lap Ferrari’s 2023 car at Fiorano in front of over a thousand Scuderia fans. He also hit the circuit of the Spanish Grand Prix, but Ferrari’s test at Barcelona saw Hamilton crash at Turn 12 while lapping in an SF-23.
Yet Stevenage native Hamilton got back behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday. He and 2025 teammate Charles Leclerc both took part in the Pirelli 2026 tyre test driving in a modified version of the Scuderia’s car for last season.
Ferrari ran an ‘extreme’ rear wing on Lewis Hamilton’s car for the Pirelli 2026 tyre test
The Pirelli tyre test at the home of the Spanish GP was Hamilton’s first chance to drive in the 2024-spec Ferrari which Leclerc and Carlos Sainz got second place in the F1 constructors’ championship with. But Ferrari modified the car to help reflect the 2026 regulation changes.
It was the first time that Pirelli had tested tyres with a modern car adapted to resemble F1’s 2026 engine and chassis regulations. Additionally, The Race also reports that Ferrari made a ‘quite extreme’ change to the rear wing fitted to Hamilton’s car for the Pirelli 2026 tyre test.
READ MORE: Five unforgettable Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona including Senna vs Mansell
While the Scuderia chose to run a high-downforce rear wing at the 2024 Spanish GP back in June, Ferrari fitted a low-downforce rear wing onto Hamilton and Leclerc’s car for the Pirelli 2026 tyre test. The wing was more akin to what they ran for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Ferrari even modified the front wing fitted to Hamilton and Leclerc’s car for the Pirelli 2026 tyre test to trim further downforce levels off the car. The Maranello crew adapted the front wing that helped Sainz come third in the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix and Leclerc take fourth.
Lewis Hamilton was 1.788s slower than Charles Leclerc in the Pirelli Barcelona test
Ferrari’s high-downforce rear wing did not help them too much at Barcelona last term, after Leclerc and Sainz made contact in the 2024 Spanish GP to end the race 22.709 and 31.028 seconds behind Red Bull ace Max Verstappen as he won the race to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Leclerc and Sainz were also 0.348s and 0.353s slower than the McLaren racer as Norris took pole position for the 2024 Spanish GP. Ferrari’s fastest time in Q3 was Leclerc’s 1:11.731 lap, miles quicker than in the Pirelli 2026 tyre test with the Monegasque leading with a 1:14.971.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
Hamilton’s fastest Pirelli 2026 tyre test lap a 1:16.759, slower than Oscar Piastri managed in his McLaren with the Australian setting a 1:15.815. The lap times are largely meaningless as fuel loads and tyre compounds are unverified, but were faster than in last year’s Spanish GP.
Norris took the extra point for posting the fastest lap in the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix as the Briton chased Verstappen with a 1:17.115 on Lap 51 of 66. Leclerc posted the quickest race lap by a Ferrari driver in Barcelona in 2024 with the 27-year-old doing a 1:17.897 on Lap 52.
