Lewis Hamilton has taken part in his first testing session as a Ferrari driver at the team’s private Fiorano circuit.
There wasn’t anything particularly private about the event on Wednesday morning with more than 1000 fans turning out to see Hamilton’s Ferrari debut.
It was the first milestone for Hamilton to achieve on his journey through pre-season testing to get up to speed before the 2025 F1 season begins at the Australian Grand Prix.
Ferrari will be hoping that they can go one better than last year in the Constructors’ Championship and usurp McLaren at the top of the standings.
It’s much too soon to know whether Ferrari are in with a better chance of winning the title in 2025, with pre-season testing in Bahrain taking place at the end of February.
Aside from a few short runs during filming days, teams won’t get to fully analyse their competition until they start working at the Bahrain International Circuit.
One team that Hamilton will have a close eye on is his former employer Mercedes.
After 12 seasons together, Hamilton decided to part ways with the Silver Arrows and team principal Toto Wolff, who promoted youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli into his seat for this year.
On paper, Hamilton has made the right decision based on how each team performed last season.
However, everything could have changed over the winter, particularly if Mercedes can figure out why their car was only able to challenge for race wins in cold conditions.
Ferrari trying to ‘erase’ Lewis Hamilton’s memory of using Mercedes simulator
In a report from the Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport, more details have been shared about Hamilton’s early preparations at Ferrari’s Maranello factory.
On Hamilton’s first two days at Ferrari, he had a seat fitting and started work on the team’s simulator.
He’s mainly been working with Ferrari’s 2024 car on the sim up to this point, mainly using the latest configuration that helped Carlos Sainz win the Mexico City Grand Prix.
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However, they report that Ferrari have also been using several different setups that are very different from one another.
This is to help Hamilton get used to how Ferrari’s power unit responds, how the suspension feels and the different load levels in an effort to ‘erase’ his previous memories of driving Mercedes’ sim.
Hamilton should have a small advantage in this respect because Gazzetta suggests that Ferrari’s simulator is slightly more advanced than Mercedes’.
The 40-year-old will start using the ‘mathematical model’ of the 2025 car very soon before driving it for the first time on 19 February at a shakedown event after the car’s official launch.
Lewis Hamilton already adored by Ferrari’s fan base after initial test
Ferrari’s fans are famous around the world for their passion and they turned up in droves in the early hours of Wednesday morning to catch a glimpse of his first test.
At 9:17 am Italian time he took to the track although many spectators would have struggled to see him through the thick fog.
Hamilton’s first lap times won’t be of any concern to Ferrari, especially in changeable conditions.
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They will be much more concerned with how he communicated with new race engineer Riccardo Adami and how the different aspects of the car felt compared to years of using Mercedes machinery.
The seven-time world champion will want to take full advantage of Ferrari’s simulator to get up to speed before his first competitive outing for the team.
Expectations will be high for Hamilton to hit the ground running and forgetting many of the habits he picked up that were specific to driver Mercedes’ cars is going to be essential to pushing Ferrari’s new car to its limits.
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