What’s next for Lewis Hamilton? Second Ferrari test booked and more key dates

Lewis Hamilton took a moment to salute the crowd during his first Ferrari test at Fiorano
Ticking off a monumental first as a Ferrari driver, his debut run in a Ferrari F1 car, Lewis Hamilton’s next outing in red will be a Pirelli tyre test next month.
Hamilton’s time as a Ferrari Formula 1 driver began in earnest this past week as the Briton visited Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters, posed for photographers outside Enzo Ferrari’s iconic red-doored house, and drove in the simulator.
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Described by Ferrari as a “total immersion programme”, Hamilton also got to know his new colleagues, including his race engineer Riccardo Adami, and began to familiarise himself with Ferrari’s practices.
That culminated in a morning at the Fiorano circuit where Hamilton covered 89 laps in an SF-23, the team’s 2023 car, including practicing pit stops.
It was a memorable first for the seven-time World Champion, who said: “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.”
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Hamilton won’t have to wait very long for his second outing in a Ferrari Formula 1 car with team principal Fred Vasseur confirming last month that he would also take part in Ferrari’s Pirelli tyre test at Barcelona.
Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are set to take to the track across February 4-5 with a so-called mule car – a heavily adapted version of last year’s SF-24 car – on experimental hard tyres
“We will have a couple of test days with TPC [Testing Previous Car] and Pirelli [tyre test] before Bahrain,” Vasseur told F1.com.
Hamilton will then have to wait roughly three weeks for his next on-track outing, but he will be presented to the world as a Ferrari driver during Formula 1’s group launch on 18 February.
Taking place at the O2 Arena in London, all 10 teams and 20 drivers will be present for the event in which the teams will unveil their F1 2025 liveries.
A day after that pomp and ceremony, Hamilton will be back on track, joining his new team-mate Charles Leclerc in shaking down Ferrari’s F1 2025 car.
The team-mates will drive the car, dubbed Project 677, as part of a ‘filming day’ where only 100km are permitted but it is time that will give them, and the engineers, a better understanding of the new car.
After that, it’s off to Bahrain for pre-season testing which runs from 26-28 February.
Hamilton and Leclerc will share driving duties across the three days, meaning they will be on track for a day and a half each.
“It’s a very short period,” Vasseur conceded of Hamilton’s pre-season preparations. “At the end of the day, you have launch of the car on Feb 19 – and then we are going directly to Bahrain for the first test and to Melbourne.
“It means this will be a rush, but I’m not worried at all. He [Hamilton] is coming with experience of this. He did almost 20 seasons in F1 – and he will manage perfectly this period.”
As for his official debut as a Ferrari Grand Prix driver, that comes at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit from 14-16 March.
Lewis Hamilton’s key dates
20 January – First Ferrari day
22 January – Fiorano SF-23 run
4-5 February – Barcelona Pirelli test
18 February – Formula 1 launch
19 February – Fiorano 2025 car shakedown
26-28 February – Bahrain pre-season testing
14-16 March – Australian Grand Prix
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