Ever since announcing at the beginning of February that he was saying goodbye to Mercedes after 12 seasons, excitement has been building around Lewis Hamilton’s next move.
Formula 1 was denied the chance to see Ayrton Senna race for Ferrari, but Hamilton has managed to take the final step in his career that his hero wasn’t able to.
Ferrari confirmed Hamilton’s arrival last February, leaving Carlos Sainz out of a drive for 2025 until he settled on a race seat at Williams.
It means Charles Leclerc faces going up against the second world champion as a teammate in his career after Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel’s move to Ferrari mirrors Hamilton’s quite nicely.
Both drivers enjoyed a period of dominance in Formula 1 with their previous teams before deciding to move to Ferrari.
The German was a four-time world champion before joining the Scuderia, but only wasted one year outside of championship contention before jumping ship.
Hamilton saw out three campaigns after his heartbreaking final-lap defeat to Max Verstappen in 2021 but at the age of 40 is getting ready to race for the sport’s most iconic team.
There are plenty of things that will change drastically for Hamilton between racing for Mercedes and Ferrari.
One of those is the procedures and processes during a race weekend when it comes to communicating with his new race crew.
In particular, Hamilton will have to get used to not working alongside Peter Bonnington as his race engineer.
Instead, according to Autoracer, Riccardo Adami is set to take over that role at Ferrari alongside Hamilton.
The report suggests that the seven-time champion has already met Adami and Ferrari are preparing several tests for Hamilton where he can begin to improve their relationship.
Hamilton has spoken to Vettel about Adami and appears to be happy with his consensus on the Ferrari stalwart.
The Brit has taken Vettel’s recommendation into ‘great consideration’ and appears to be happy with his opinion on Adami.
Although Ferrari have denied when Hamilton’s first test will take place at their private test track at Fiorano, it’s expected to be in the next seven days.
Hamilton’s first Ferrari simulator session is just around the corner and that will give him his first indication of how their 2024 car may potentially feel on track.
However, there’s no substitute for driving the car in real life and he may not be allowed to race their 2025 machine until pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Formula 1 has made the rules around testing much more strict in recent years to help teams keep within the cost cap.
This will put a lot of this season’s rookies at a disadvantage given they’ll be coming up against drivers who have spent years getting used to cars designed for this set of regulations.
Hamilton is likely to notice some differences between his previous Mercedes and the new Ferrari and will hope they better suit his driving style.
If they don’t, then he’ll be praying Ferrari are at the front of the pack when the 2026 regulations are introduced.
