Lewis Hamilton is preparing for his first track time in Ferrari machinery on Wednesday and will have a supporting cast of some of his closest friends and family in attendance at the Fiorano test track near Maranello.
The seven-time world champion faces a tough battle to get up to speed in his new team ahead of the season opener in Melbourne. Ferrari have planned an extensive testing programme to use up their TPC (testing of previous cars) allocation for the 2025 campaign.
For Hamilton, the schedule is as follows. The first test is on Wednesday at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track, and new team-mate Charles Leclerc will be in attendance. The Brit will then head to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, driving the team’s 2023 challenger at a track on the 2025 calendar.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, Hamilton will have some special visitors at the track too. His father Anthony, will be in attendance, as he was at the British Grand Prix in 2024, while his mother Carmen, and stepmother Linda will also be present at the Fiorano track.
Angela Cullen will also be in Hamilton’s entourage at Fiorano. The personal trainer has returned to the seven-time world champion’s side after spending 18 months working with Marcus Armstrong in IndyCar.
In the garage, Hamilton will have new team principal Fred Vasseur watching on, while Riccardo Adami – formerly the race engineer of Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz – will guide the Brit through procedures over the radio.
It remains to be seen which Ferrari challenger Hamilton will drive on Wednesday. F1’s TPC regulations allow drivers to test cars that are at least two years old, meaning the SF-23 is the most recent machine that the 40-year-old could pilot in private testing.
However, according to a report from Corriere della Sera, Ferrari have also prepared the F1-75 – the team’s 2022 machine that challenged Red Bull and Max Verstappen during the first half of that year. Hamilton has tested both cars in the simulator ahead of his first track day with his new squad.
Ferrari’s goals for the test are for acclimation and not performance. Vasseur’s team want Hamilton to understand the ‘dynamics’ of the SF-23 and F1-75 machines, as well as to learn the warm-up lap procedures and get comfortable with a new steering wheel after over a decade with Mercedes.
The Stevenage-born driver will do it all in his signature style, too. On Wednesday morning, Hamilton shared photos of a striking special helmet, encompassing large blocks of Ferrari’s iconic yellow with red detailings throughout and his personal logo on the lid.
