Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is one of the biggest stories of the 2025 season, with the seven-time world champion getting used to life at the iconic team.
Anticipation has been building over Hamilton’s race debut with Ferrari, having given positive feedback on their 2025 challenger after F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Hamilton managed to beat Carlos Sainz’s quickest time from testing in 2024 in the first days in the SF-25, with a time that was four-tenths faster than the Spaniard.
Ferrari disappointed in F1 testing on the first day, but as Hamilton and Charles Leclerc completed more race and qualifying runs they gave an indication that they were not far off pace setters McLaren in the pecking order.
Hamilton’s seismic announcement that he would be leaving Mercedes dominated headlines last year, with Fred Vassuer revealing to AutoHebdo that he wanted to get the seven-time world champion to join the team earlier than 2025.
Fred Vasseur wanted Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari in 2024
Ferrari announced they had signed Lewis Hamilton in February 2024 for the following season, which meant he still had to contest the long 24-race calendar with Mercedes.
Hamilton had signed a deal with Mercedes a few months prior but activated a performance clause in his contract, which enabled him to leave early. This became a barrier to Vasseur’s original plan, which was to get Hamilton in as early as 2024.
“We both started talking about it at the Monaco GP 2023, on May 28, my birthday to be precise. I quickly realized that it could happen. I knew that the desire was there on his side, that it had always been there in fact. It wasn’t possible on our side for 2024, because we had both our drivers under contract.
“Lewis had always had Ferrari in the back of his mind, and I thought the planets were aligning. For me, having Lewis associated with Charles was one more stone in the edifice.”
How close is Ferrari to challenging McLaren in 2025?
Ferrari emerged as one of the main challengers to McLaren over one-lap during pre-season testing, having largely focused on qualifying simulations between Hamilton and Leclerc.
It can be difficult to gauge just how close the field is based on testing times as there is a lot of varables to take into consideration such as engine modes and fuel loads.
| Driver | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 1:31.834 | 1:30.345 | 1:29.379 |
| Charles Leclerc | 1:30.878 | 1:30.811 | 1:29.431 |
| Lando Norris | 1:30.430 | 1:30.943 | 1:30.882 |
| Oscar Piastri | 1:32.084 | 1:29.940 | 1:30.821 |
Ferrari’s best lap was set on the second day of testing when the conditions were much more favourable, with Hamilton’s 1:29.379 just 0.031s off the quickest set by Sainz in the Williams.
McLaren did not set a fastest lap on the second day, but their previous pace coupled with Ferrari’s theoretical best suggests they are at least second-best in the pecking order with Red Bull close behind.
