Hamilton to take the wheel of 2022 Ferrari ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton should not wait until February 26th – the date of the first day of winter testing F1 2025 in Bahrain – before driving a Ferrari. The Team should, logically, apply a specific preparation plan for the Briton so that he can acclimatise to his new team and the procedures specific to the Italian team.

The seven-time world champion will not be released by Mercedes before 2025 and will therefore miss the post-season tests with Ferrari in Abu Dhabi, next December. To rectify the situation, the Prancing Horse is planning driving sessions for Lewis Hamilton with old Ferraris, most likely on his Fiorano track next to the Maranello factories. The Englishman should notably take the wheel of the Ferrari F1-75, used during the 2022 season, the first year of the current generation of ground-effect single-seaters. A test authorized by Formula 1 as part of the "Testing of Previous Cars" (TPC), which authorizes teams to run single-seaters that are at least two years old.

Hamilton "won't need tons of hours to acclimatize"

The arrival of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, announced last February, has been in the works behind the scenes for several months in Maranello, as Frédéric Vasseur explains. "I'm not sure he needs tons of acclimatization hours, said the Scuderia director, to Autosport. He is experienced enough to be quick from day one, or at least very quickly. We will have one or two days of testing with old cars, plus the Bahrain test, and that will be enough. Part of the team is already focusing on the 2025 season, on the test plan, on communication and so on, with Lewis being part of it, but not the race team and personally I am not thinking about it.

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