Ferrari engineer gives first response after meeting Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton drives the Ferrari SF-23 at the Fiorano circuit
Lewis Hamilton may be waxing lyrically about his move to Ferrari, but for some of the people in the Scuderia’s engineering department, his arrival is also the realisation of their personal dreams.
Hamilton announced early last year that he’d signed a multi-year contract to join Ferrari, the Briton saying goodbye to Mercedes despite just months prior signing a new one-plus-one contract extension.
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, a dream realised for many
Exercising his option to exit after one season, he spoke of the Ferrari dream in an Instagram post.
“I think for every driver, I think growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit, and you wonder what it might be like to be surrounded by the red,” he said.
“You go to the Italian Grand Prix, and you see the sea of red of Ferrari fans, and you can only stand in awe of that. It’s a team that’s not had huge success really since, mostly obviously from Michael’s days, but obviously since 2007, and I saw it as a huge challenge.
“Without a doubt, even as a kid, I used to play on Grand Prix 2 [a computer game] as Michael in that car.
“So it definitely is a dream, and I’m really, really excited about it.”
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It was a dream that began to become a reality this past week as Monday marked the seven-time World Champion’s first official day with the team.
Hamilton visited the team’s Maranello headquarters, meeting with various team personnel including his new race engineer Riccardo Adami, as well as other people in Ferrari’s engineer department.
One of those was Fabio Taccaliti.
While racing with Ferrari may have been a childhood dream for Hamilton, working with seven-time World Champion was an ambition of the aerodynamicist’s.
He took to Facebook to mark the moment, writing: “If, as a child, someone had told me that one day I would work in the aerodynamics department of Scuderia Ferrari and share moments with a legend like Lewis Hamilton I probably wouldn’t have believed it.
“But every step taken, every night of study, every challenge overcome has led me to experience what once seemed impossible. This is the power of dreams : with sacrifice, dedication, and passion, nothing is out of reach.
“Never stop believing in your goals, because hard work turns the impossible into reality.”
While Hamilton spent two days this week at Maranello, speaking with his new colleagues such as Taccaliti, Wednesday marked the Briton’s first day on track in a Ferrari F1 car.
The seven-time World Champion put in 30 laps of the Fiorano circuit behind the wheel of an SF-23, cheered on by his family as well as a thousand Tifosi who grabbed vantage points to watch the action.
Reportedly his time was about the 1-minute per lap mark, about four seconds off Michael Schumacher’s Fiorano lap record.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have many firsts in my career, from the first test to the first race, podium, win and championship, so I wasn’t sure how many more firsts I had but driving a Scuderia Ferrari HP car for the first time this morning, was one of the best feelings of my life,” said Hamilton.
“When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face. It reminded me of the very first time I tested a Formula 1 car, it was such an exciting and special moment, and here I am, almost twenty years later, feeling those emotions all over again.”
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