Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari is one of the biggest storylines of the 2025 Formula 1 season, as the seven-time world champion attempts to win an eighth at the Maranello squad.
Hamilton could become the first driver since Jack Brabham to win a title at 40 years old, as he looks to build on his incredible legacy in the championship.
Ferrari will be putting on a private test for Hamilton in late January to kickstart the partnership after he left Mercedes for the final time at the end of December.
It will be the first time that Hamilton has been with a team based outside the UK in his F1 career, which presents some challenges including a language barrier. While Hamilton isn’t taking Italian lessons, journalist Ben Hunt has said Hamilton is doing one thing to help when speaking on the JA on F1 podcast.
Lewis Hamilton not learning Italian like Sebastian Vettel
When Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari in 2015 he was taking Italian lessons to help with communication within the team.
The German knew how vital it was to establish a rapport, which is why he took private lessons to help him understand the engineers.
While Hamilton is not taking lessons, he is doing something else to help break the language barrier with his Ferrari engineers.
“He’s making an effort to learn is how I understand it. He’s not taking any classes, but he will be learning phrases,” said Hunt.
Lewis Hamilton to get Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari engineer team
Hamilton will be working with engineer Riccardo Adami as his race engineer at Ferrari, marking the end of his decade-long partnership with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.
It will be the first time that Hamilton has also had a race engineer whose native language is not English, although Adami is vastly experienced having worked with Vettel and most recently Carlos Sainz.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
Anthony Davidson is hopeful that the move to Ferrari can reignite the ‘magic’ for Hamilton, after looking dejected for most of his final races with Mercedes.
Hamilton will be hopeful that the breakthroughs they found with their 2024 challenger at the end of the season can continue into 2025, as F1 reaches the final year of the current ruleset before a big change in 2026.
