Anticipation is already building ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s first race for Ferrari during the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Lewis Hamilton spent his final season at Mercedes in limbo, with the whole world already knowing his next step.
He had taken the unusual step of announcing that he would be joining Ferrari before the 2024 campaign had even begun.
It set off a chain reaction of events that have led to eight teams on the grid making changes to their driver line-ups ahead of the final campaign of the current regulations.
Mika Hakkinen has warned Hamilton about joining Ferrari and how he might be emulating his exit from the sport, but that will be at the back of his mind after signing a two-year deal that will almost certainly include an option on both sides to extend if things are going well.
Hamilton’s final season at Mercedes didn’t end how he would have liked, finishing seventh in the Drivers’ Championship.
He will be desperate for things to start better at Ferrari and will hope their 2025 car is being designed to suit his strengths better than last year’s Mercedes was.
The seven-time world champion won’t have long to adapt to his new surroundings and a report from Motorsport has shared more details about his testing debut.
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari testing debut could be delayed by bad weather
The report from Motorsport suggests that Hamilton is taking part in an ‘elastic’ testing program over the next few weeks.
Testing has become extremely limited with an emphasis on keeping costs down in F1, meaning Hamilton couldn’t immediately jump into Ferrari’s new car once his contract started at the beginning of January.
Ferrari want to ‘ensure’ that track conditions are ‘acceptable’ for Hamilton given he can only do 1000km of testing outside of the three-day pre-season testing session in Bahrain.
Hamilton is expected to make his debut at Ferrari’s private Fiorano circuit on either January 20 or 21.
However, this could change at the last minute depending on the weather conditions before Hamilton heads to Barcelona for further testing.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory
This is set to take place at the end of January in the hope of the temperatures being warmer.
Mercedes’ 2024 car famously performed best the cooler the track was, but aside from a few events – such as Spa and Silverstone – it’s rare for teams to have to prepare for these conditions.
Ferrari have a four-day window that they can use the Circuit de Catalunya, meaning they don’t need to waste any time running Hamilton in sub-optimal conditions.
It’s believed that Hamilton will run in either the 2022 or 2023 Ferrari due to the rules around testing in previous cars that prevent him from using last year’s machine.
Lewis Hamilton chasing Michael Schumacher’s championship record while at Ferrari
The 2025 season is expected to be one of the most competitive in Formula 1 history.
Seven drivers won multiple races last year – including Hamilton – and the rules aren’t changing this year ahead of an F1 revolution next season.
This means that the grid is likely to converge even further, but at the same time, several teams will quickly shift their interests towards 2026 if they feel they’re not in contention to win races this year.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
| CATEGORY | VOL. | RANK |
| Races | 228 | 1st |
| Championships | 6 | 1st |
| Race wins | 82 | 1st |
| Pole positions | 78 | 1st |
| Podiums | 148 | 1st |
Ferrari aren’t in that boat, meaning Hamilton should have a chance to surpass Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships.
Schumacher knew Hamilton was special early in his career, and he will need to rediscover that level of performance if he wants to become an eight-time champion.
Leclerc has already sent a warning to Hamilton about racing for Ferrari and he will have title ambitions of his own if the Scuderia have managed to progress beyond McLaren over the winter.
