F1: Ferrari prepares the premiere of Lewis Hamilton dressed in red

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The Englishman will get into a Scuderia car for the first time during a private test that will take place on the 22nd in Fiorano.

With his fresh 40 years, Lewis Hamilton begins, perhaps, his last great sporting challenge: racing with Ferrari and trying to add his eighth title to become the most champion driver in the history of F1 alone, breaking the break that He has seven in the same line as Michael Schumacher. The Englishman’s flirtation with the house of Maranello dates back to long ago, but their paths never crossed and it seemed that it would never finally happen, basically due to a chronological issue. However, the man of four decades remains firm and competitive and the time has finally come to wear red, leaving behind an alliance with Mercedes-Benz that dates back to his debut as an F1 driver back in 2007, when he debuted with McLaren, Powered by Star Company motors. The bond of the seven-time champion ended at the time of the toast to welcome the new year and a moment later his multi-year contract with La Rossa came into effect. Now, the moment is missing to get into an Italian car for the first time and the date is written down: January 22.

According to the Italian media AutoRacer, Hamilton will appear on Monday the 20th in Maranello to begin his work. It will not be the British’s first visit to the Ferrari plant: he has already visited the offices several times on private and informal visits. But Monday will be official and the start of work. Lewis will meet with the engineers and quickly begin his task in the simulator. It will also be time to begin fine-tuning the relationship with Riccardo Adami, who will be his track engineer. The Italian was the voice on the radio of Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz in the Scuderia and must leave behind the legacy of Peter Bonningon, who was at the side of the seven-time champion for 12 seasons.

The work will include Lewis’s first contact with a Ferrari on the track. The scheduled day is Wednesday the 22nd, although it may vary depending on the weather (the team has everything ready to use the track on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd). Hamilton, with the 44 painted, will accelerate an F1-75, the model that the Italian team used in 2022. The seven-time champion is likely to complete the 1,000 kilometers of tests in four days of testing with old models, which the 2025 regulation allows, by the end of this month. The next stop after Fiorano will be Barcelona. Meanwhile, in Italy the tifosi are already experiencing the madness of Hamilton and hope to renew their laurels to leave behind the almost sepia images of Kimi Räikkönen becoming champion in 2007 and the team winning the 2008 Constructors’ title, Ferrari’s last two conquests. Hamilton will not be alone next week, there will also be Charles Leclerc, who will begin his seventh season with Ferrari this year.

Hamilton and Ferrari’s agenda will continue with the joint presentation organized by F1 for February 18 at the O2 stadium in London. There, the team will show off the car’s livery, which will be seen for the first time a day later. The 2025 model, whose internal name is Project 677, is under the control of Loic Serra, a French engineer who worked at Mercedes during the times of Hamilton’s success. “The 2025 car will be 99% different from the SF-24,” said Frédéric Vasseur, the director of the Scuderia and who worked with Hamilton in the ART team, when the Englishman was GP2 champion. That is, the Englishman will join a new team with very well-known people…

And, in case something was missing, Hamilton will not arrive at Ferrari alone. The Englishman will be with his manager, Marc Hynes, he will have his own communications team for marketing tasks, his security people, physical trainer and even a photographer.