Lewis Hamilton is embarking on his first week with his new Formula 1 employer Ferrari for acclimatisation and testing.
The seven-time world champion arrived at Maranello on Monday at approximately 10:00 local time, ahead of Testing of Previous Car (TPC) running at Ferrari’s Fiorano test circuit later in the week.
Hamilton was prohibited from taking part in the 2024 F1 post-season test at the Abu Dhabi Las Marina circuit as he was under contractual obligations with Mercedes until the end of the calendar year.
After a winter break to reset, work now begins between F1’s most-storied team and the sport’s most successful driver.
Monday will largely comprise Hamilton meeting and greeting members of the Ferrari team at its Maranello base with Auto Racer reporting his first engineering meeting commenced at 11:30 local time.
These will no doubt include Race Engineer Riccardo Adami, who is set to work with Hamilton after guiding Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel through GPs in years gone by.
Hamilton will also conduct a seat fit and conduct simulator running.
That is before he heads out onto the Fiorano Ferrari test circuit in a scarlet red F1 machine for the first time on Wednesday.
This is permitted under TPC regulations that allow teams to run two-year-old cars on track, but the regulations have been tightened up this year.
That is thanks to a test Red Bull conducted last year with the RB18 and Max Verstappen at Imola.
The nature of that test was to compare the 2022 machine to its 2024 counterpart: the RB20.
After Ferrari took issue with this, TPC regulations have been tightened this year, with teams allowed 20 days of running, but a limit of just 1000km with permanent drivers across four of those days.
Hamilton and Leclerc begin Ferrari partnership at Fiorano
Hamilton will be running in either Ferrari’s F1-75 or SF-23 at Fiorano this week, enabling him to integrate further with his engineering team and get acclimatised with his new steering wheel and team-mate.
That is because Charles Leclerc is also at Maranello this week, giving F1’s blockbuster driving partnership its first chance to work together.
Leclerc has stated how he sees Hamilton’s experience being a benefit to Ferrari, with the latter expected to receive a tough challenge from the Monegasque ace.
Hamilton’s preparation following this week is said to continue in Barcelona with Corriere della Sera claiming the Briton will conduct further TPC running at the Spanish GP circuit at the end of the month.
His subsequent appearances will come at the F175 launch event at London’s O2 Arena on February 18, before returning to Maranello for Ferrari’s 2025 car launch a day later.
This will likely be his and Leclerc’s first time in the new machine as Ferrari will shake down its new creation.
Ahead of the 2025 campaign, Hamilton will participate in pre-season testing on February 26-29.
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc details how he expects Lewis Hamilton relationship to be at Ferrari
