The already iconic photo of Lewis Hamilton standing in Maranello features a subtle nod to team founder Enzo Ferrari, it has emerged.

With the seven-time F1 World Champion heading to Ferrari’s base at Maranello for his first week of work with the Italian marque, careful consideration was put into the initial images of Hamilton as a Scuderia driver.

Lewis Hamilton pays tribute to Enzo Ferrari with clothing choice

The move of Hamilton to Ferrari from his long-time home at Mercedes has resulted in a media frenzy as the sport’s most successful driver arrives to work with the sport’s most successful team.

The uniting of the two sporting icons, and their respective brands, has captured the imagination of the very excited Tifosi who dream of a return to the pinnacle of Formula 1 as the chance of Hamilton winning a record-breaking eighth world title while dressed in red appears a real possibility.

This week, Hamilton headed to Maranello to meet his team and drive a Ferrari F1 car for the first time as he carried out a short shakedown with the team’s SF-23 at Fiorano.

The first images of Hamilton wearing a Ferrari race suit also emerged, while the 40-year-old posed for a photo with a Ferrari F40 outside the former home of team founder Enzo Ferrari.

The photo, which showed Hamilton resplendent in a stylish suit with a jacket draped over his shoulders, has racked up over five and a million likes on Instagram since being posted and appears highly symbolic in its posing.

In the background, Hamilton is framed by seven windows with their shutters open – seemingly in reference to his already-won seven titles. The door to the building, behind Hamilton, could be interpreted as being symbolic of that elusive eighth title.

But a further easter egg of the photo has emerged, reports renowned Italian journalist Roberto Chinchero.

Writing for the Italian branch of Motorsport.com, Chinchero said that Hamilton’s clothing choices were inspired by the fashion sense of ‘il Commendatore’, Enzo Ferrari, with the British driver seeking to pay tribute to the presence of the team’s late founder.

“Leafing through books and watching films on Ferrari history, Lewis was struck by the elegance of Enzo Ferrari, immortalised in many photographs in coat, jacket, and tie,” Chinchero wrote of Hamilton.

“Hamilton wanted to pay homage to the look of the time made his own by the founder, a sign of respect for the place he visited for the first time.

“Again, there will be those who will turn up their noses, comparing Lewis’ attitude to other drivers of the past, but it matters little, there is no one way to show respect for a figure, a place, a legend.

“The ‘Commendatore’ style coat is a message: I know where I am, I’ve read this story, let’s hope we can write more chapters together.”

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The now iconic photo of Hamilton posing in front of Ferrari’s home, which is on the grounds of the Maranello factory housing the Italian manufacturer, has seen a deluge of tongue-in-cheek copycat imitations across social media.

One of the most popular of these was posted by British television host and journalist Jeremy Clarkson, who shared a photo of himself posing in front of a barn on his farm with the caption, “Lewis Clarkilton” – the image boasts some 1.4 million likes at the time of publishing.

But, while Clarkson appears to be on the hype train for Hamilton at Ferrari, the Clarkson’s Farm presenter theorised that Hamilton’s best days are behind him.

“It could be argued that Lewis Hamilton wants a record-breaking eighth world championship before he retires, and moved to Ferrari because he reckons that this year they will have the fastest car,” he said in his column for The Sun.

“He may have a point. Early indications on the rumour mill suggest it’s very fast indeed.

“However, if he’s so keen on that eighth world title, you’d imagine that he’d have arrived at the factory on day one, keen to know the car’s secrets and how he can extract the most from its vast arsenal of racing trickery.

“Instead, he turned up in an SUV in a suit and tie and posed for pictures before talking to fans, under the watchful eye of a video drone which luckily was there to capture the moment.

“Next, there was a tour of the team’s headquarters where, in slow motion, we saw the fawning engineers and the applause.

“And then, eventually, he went on to the track, in an F1 Ferrari that’s three years old.

“I’m told his new house isn’t anywhere near the team’s HQ. It’s in Milan, and he doesn’t even commute in a Ferrari road car, choosing instead to use Fiat’s helicopter.

“It made me wonder. What is Lewis now? A driver? Or a superstar?

“What I do know is he’ll have his work cut out to beat his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who speaks Italian, knows the team, doesn’t spend quite so long posing for pictures and, thanks to a single-lap shootout, is regarded by many to be the fastest driver of them all.

“Maybe Lewis is aware of this.

“And maybe he signed for Ferrari for a different reason – he knows he’s past his prime now and he didn’t want to retire having never driven for motorsport’s crown jewel.

“Either way, I wish him well.”

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