JANUARY 22, 2025

Thirty two laps for Hamilton in Fiorano

Lewis Hamilton made his long-awaited debut as a Ferrari driver on Wednesday, covering 32 laps around the team’s private circuit of Fiorano during the morning. Using the 2023-spec SF-23, the seven times World Champion, did the usual installation lap at 9.16AM, saluting the big crowd that had already gathered on the roads around the circuit, before completing three series, two of ten laps each and a final one of five timed laps. Adding it all together, with in and out laps included, Hamilton completed 32 laps around the Scuderia’s own track, for a total of just over 96 kilometers.

The low temperatures felt in Italy at this time of the year, combined with the usual morning humidity meant that only on his last run Hamilton was able to use slick tyres, the first two being done on Full Wets.

With very low visibility as the traditional morning mist had descended over Maranello, Hamilton did his first installation lap at very low speed, just to make sure all systems were working properly. After spending 45 minutes in the pits, and with visibility improving a lot, Hamilton went off to a run of ten laps around the small Italian track, following the usual practice of doing one quick lap followed by a slow one, to keep the Full Wet Demo tyres within their working temperature range and also to fully recharge the battery of the Ferrari Power Unit.

After another 15 minutes in the pits, Hamilton set off for another 10-lap run and as he started to push a bit harder, but without taking any risks, but still locked up twice – in Turns One and Five – as this was his first experience with Brembo brake discs, that operate in a very different way to the ones he had been using at Mercedes for the last 12 seasons.

Finally, at 11.07, Hamilton was able to get a taste of what the two-year old car can do, as he did a five-lap run with Hard Demo tyres and as he got to push a bit harder, Hamilton couldn’t avoid going a bit wide into Turn One at the start of his final lap for the day, as light rain had started to fall. In between quick laps, Hamilton also did a few practice starts, as he has to learn a completely new starting system to the one he knew so well at Mercedes.

With his work for the day finished, Hamilton then headed, with his engineering team, back to his first debrief in red, as the mechanics started to change the cockpit to accommodate Charles Leclerc, who will run in the afternoon. The Monegasque will be allowed a maximum of 34 laps – just over 102 kilometers – as Ferrari has registered this day as a Promotional Event, meaning the drivers cannot exceed 200 kilometers of running between them, as the test is not being done with a 2025-spec car.

This year’s regulations allow each team to conduct two days of Promotional Events with cars that raced between 2021 and 2023, so Hamilton will be able to do another day of running, when the weather will be more favorable, with the SF-23 but still using Pirelli Demo tyres, before starting to eat into Ferrari’s allocation of 1000 kilometers for Testing of Previous Cars. This limitation is one of the new elements of the 2025 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations and that mileage can be spread through a maximum of four days of testing.

Ferrari has booked the Circuit de Catalunya for four days, two weeks from now, and Hamilton should be joined by Charles Leclerc, to share the SF-23 and that mileage when the weather conditions will be favorable.

At the same time, the Scuderia has planned to take a 2022-spec SF-75 to give its junior drivers, as well as the main reserve driver, still to be announced, a bit more track running, as they’ll be helping the race team with their work in the Maranello simulator. Being test drivers, they’ll gave no mileage limitation, which allow them more meaningful running that Hamilton and Leclerc should get in the Spanish track.