Lewis Hamilton arrived at Ferrari’s Maranello factory on 20 January 2025, bringing to an end nearly a year of anticipation after announcing his departure from Mercedes.
The landscape of the Formula 1 grid changed in February 2024 when Lewis Hamilton decided to embark on the latest chapter of his racing career and exchange the Silver Arrows for the Scuderia.
A fanbase that have cheered against the 40-year-old for nearly two decades suddenly had to embrace the seven-time world champion, and the crowd that arrived at Fiorano to greet Hamilton highlighted just how quickly and easily they made that transition.
The adaptation for Hamilton to his new surroundings hasn’t been as straightforward despite the copious amount of time and effort he’s put into making his first season at Ferrari a success.
Hamilton has been doing long hours at Ferrari’s factory and as well as learning Italian, his motorhome has been parked next to Enzo Ferrari’s iconic home.
He’s also got hundreds of new mechanics, engineers and other staff to get to know before the season starts, but his new race engineer Riccardo Adami is one of the more key team members for Hamilton to develop a relationship with.
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm has spoken on The Race F1’s Patreon about Hamilton’s start to life at Ferrari and the technique that former Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel used to use that the Brit has copied to help things go smoothly with Adami.
Lewis Hamilton and Riccardo Adami exchanging notes during first Ferrari sessions together
Reporting on Hamilton’s first months at Maranello, Mitchell-Malm said: “He’s delighted with the first month or so at Ferrari, saying it couldn’t have gone any better. He even mentioned his crash in the 2023 Ferrari in a private test in Barcelona as something that had to happen, as it came as part of his familiarisation of how a Ferrari feels to drive and push to the limit.
“He reckons the integration process has been seamless, adapting here covers everything from getting used to a completely new factory in Maranello, the settings and terminology for different suspension components and in-car things like the impact the brake bias changes make or the tone of the engine in his ear.
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“He described it all as relearning this new way of working and the way the car likes to be driven as well as building a rapport with team members, including his race engineer Riccardo Adami with whom Hamilton has been trading notes all through testing about the best way to communicate.
“The upshot is Hamilton feels like the broader adaptation is on plan and couldn’t be further ahead with the short space of time he’s had.”
Vettel previously said during an interview with Formula 1’s official website: “In general I love to take notes.
“I take digital notes with an iPad a bit now, but I prefer just pen and paper. When you write with a pen, it’s like you write it into your head, you remember it.”
Helmut Marko delivers worrying Lewis Hamilton verdict after pre-season testing
Hamilton got his first real taste of driving Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car in Bahrain alongside new teammate Charles Leclerc ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
It was clear that Ferrari had taken a step forward compared to last year, but McLaren appear to be leading the way heading to Melbourne.
Helmut Marko didn’t list Hamilton in his rankings after testing, instead suggesting that only Leclerc was behind Verstappen and McLaren.
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Hamilton will take little notice of the Red Bull chief’s prediction but will know he’s at a slight disadvantage to his teammate and any of the other leading drivers who didn’t switch teams over the winter.
It won’t take him long to get fully up to speed at Ferrari and the car appears to suit his racing style slightly better than the previous few Mercedes.
He’s got to hope he doesn’t lose too much ground to his rivals before he’s in a position to extract the maximum from the SF-25.
