More Lewis Hamilton test details emerge as ‘thousands’ flock to Fiorano

Michelle Foster
Lewis Hamilton waves as he drives a Ferrari F1 car for the first time

Lewis Hamilton waves as he drives a Ferrari F1 car for the first time

Never mind that elusive eighth World title, this year Lewis Hamilton is chasing the “ultimate achievement” in Formula 1: a World Championship with Ferrari.

Almost 12 months after announcing he would be leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari, Hamilton’s stint with the Scuderia has begun in earnest.

Does a title with Ferrari ‘mean so much more’?

The Briton kicked off Hamilton week with a day at the team’s Maranello headquarters on Monday where he met with team personnel including team principal Fred Vasseur, drove the simulator and signed a few autographs.

Tuesday was more of the same with meetings before the fun stuff started on Wednesday morning with his first laps in the SF23 at the Fiorano circuit.

In misty conditions, more than a thousand Tifosi gathered to watch his debut run and the seven-time World Champion didn’t disappoint as he waved to the crowd on his first lap in a Ferrari F1 car.

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Sky F1 pundit Craig Slater revealed Hamilton’s family was on hand to watch the emotional opening lap.

“It’s a family affair for Lewis Hamilton today,” he said. “He’s got his dad here, Anthony, his stepmother Linda, and I understand his mother Carmen as well. So a lot of emotion on the track for him today.

“But his team boss Fred Vasseur says he wants the emotion just to be for one lap, because this is strictly about business.”

“In this final phase of his career,” he added, “no question Lewis Hamilton means business.”

That business first and foremost is winning a World title in red.

Ferrari last won the Drivers’ Championship title with Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 and while there have been near misses with Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and even a runner-up for Charles Leclerc, nothing short of P1 is acceptable for the Italian stable and their Tifosi.

Should Hamilton break the Scuderia’s duck, it would not only cement his name in history as the driver with the most World titles, eight, it would, according to Slater, be the “ultimate achievement”.

“This is the historic first lap of Lewis Hamilton in the red Ferrari car – 105 victories, 104 poles in his career, seven World Championships – he’s 40 years of age now,” he said.

“Can he complete what he hopes to describe as the masterpiece of his career with an eighth championship, at the most famous team in Formula 1?

“I’m jam-packed in here, there’s more than 1,000 Ferrari fans. In fact, I’m so packed in, I can’t quite see the entire number that have gathered around here to catch this first glimpse of Lewis in the red car.

“Hamilton looking to follow Mike Hawthorn, Britain’s first world champion, who was a Ferrari World Champion in 1958, John Surtees, who won the championship with Ferrari, others who didn’t like Eddie Irvine, Nigel Mansell, Peter Collins.

“Many great drivers have come to this team, hoping they could emulate the likes of Fangio and Schumacher and make themselves not just a great World Champion, but a great Ferrari World Champion, which means so much more. It is, I suppose, the ultimate achievement in this sport.”

Hamilton is running in Ferrari’s 2023 car, the SF23, as per F1’s Testing Previous Car protocols. But while that’s not the car that he’ll race this season, the outing gives him an opportunity to familiarise himself with Ferrari and their procedures.

“It’s the 2023 Ferrari. The current car will be an evolution of this one, so it will be useful for Hamilton to get a feel of what Ferrari’s power is like. Remember, he’s driven a Mercedes-powered car for his entire F1 career.

“He’ll be able to feedback on how his seat feels – he would have had that seat fitting just a few days earlier, how the steering wheel functions. Just the general feel of the brakes in what are certainly very unrepresentative conditions here.

“It’s cold, it’s under 10 degrees Celsius, there’s fog as well. He isn’t using racing Formula 1 tyres but academy tyres that are inferior in performance. But he’ll get a few impressions today, which will enable him to interface with his engineers and the rest of the team.”

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