The 2024 F1 season is nearing its final strides, with three consecutive race weekends defining the verdicts of both championships which turned out to be much more competitive than what anyone could’ve imagined in March. Work on the 2025 models has been underway for long time, and plans for the first activities of the new year are also well underway. Ferrari is no different from the rest, especially as it awaits the arrival of its new superstar: Lewis Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion, who was strongly desired by President John Elkann and announced even before the current season began, will have to be patient before he starts making contact with his new team. Unlike Carlos Sainz who, thanks to the green light he received from Ferrari, will already be able to take to the track with Williams in the postseason tests held at the Yas Marina circuit immediately after the last grand prix of the year, Hamilton will have to wait until the natural expiration of his contract with Mercedes, namely the 31st of December. It will be Antonio Fuoco instead who will take the track for the Maranello based team in the Middle East; the Italian is fresh from his season in WEC where he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of the 499P.
Lewis’s first approach to Maranello has already been programmed by Ferrari
The program for the long-awaited arrival of the driver that has been the rival of many battles has already been drawn up and defined in Maranello. According to what Autoracer.it has gathered, Hamilton is expected to arrive in Italy in late January, and Ferrari will adequately report his first day at the Prancing Horse headquarters and his first contact with the factory and each department. However hardly any statements from the driver will be included into this first filmed document, as the goal is to get to know the environment.
The debut behind the wheel of a Red car will take place on the home track at Fiorano: Hamilton will get behind the wheel of one of the ground-effect cars seen on the track in past seasons. It could be the SF-23 of the past championship, or the F1-75 of 2022. The regulations allow for the possibility of using both; Ferrari engineers will decide based on the type of training designed for the British driver.
Hamilton’s signing is also a major marketing operation for Ferrari, and the goal is to make the seven-time world champion one of its symbols. He will be joined by some of his personal sponsors such as Monster, Puma and Tommy Hilfiger. There has been speculation in recent weeks that Hamilton himself may become a sponsor of Ferrari through his non-alcoholic tequila brand Almave, which sees industry giant Pernod Richard among its investors.
The coexistence with Charles Leclerc
The coexistence with Charles Leclerc has been one of the main doubts concerning Hamilton’s recruitment to Ferrari, as many including Bernie Ecclestone recently have pointed out that it could be a source of problems for the team but also for the former Mercedes driver himself. In this regard, we are told that his approach to the Ferrari world has been very smart: despite his record palmares and 7 world titles, the soon-to-be 40-year-old will start the new adventure with great humility. Relations with Leclerc have been good for a long time, as evidenced by their chats during race weekends, and Ferrari will not change its way of managing drivers, ensuring that it handles the pair as fairly as possible.
Equal treatment between the holder of countless records in F1 history – including 7 world titles and 105 victories, but also 104 pole positions and 201 podiums – and the talent raised in the Cavallino’s program on which Ferrari has invested so much. This is also a way of stating how, even in this case, no driver is more important than Ferrari itself. Hamilton himself seems to have already taken this concept as a given, as evidenced by the approach to the latest challenge of his legendary career.
