Lewis Hamilton was one of the last to leave the F1 paddock after day one of pre-season testing and the first driver to arrive on Thursday morning, proving correct his father’s theory about the seven-time world champion’s commitment to his late-career move.
Pundits have speculated about Hamilton’s chances of hitting the ground running with Ferrari. The 40-year-old arrived in Maranello with an ultra-competitive new team-mate in Charles Leclerc and is trying hard to shake the memory of three challenging seasons with Mercedes in the ground-effect era.
To combat this speculation, Hamilton has been working tirelessly during the off-season. In a brief conversation with the Daily Mail ahead of the Brit’s first test in Maranello, his father, Anthony Hamilton, confirmed as much.
“You know what?” he said. “This feels just like the first day at McLaren.” He went on to explain that his son had ‘trained like mad’ during the off-season and that his ‘focus and belief are total’.
This commitment was seemingly confirmed during pre-season testing, with Hamilton maximising his time within the paddock as he continued to adapt to his new machinery. The former McLaren and Mercedes man will be using Ferrari power units for the first time in 2025.
The work was reflected on track, too. After a solid foundational opening day on Wednesday, Hamilton was the fastest man on track during the morning session on Thursday, leading George Russell at the top of the timing screens and completing 45 laps in the SF-25.
“Testing is always exciting,” he said after Wednesday’s running at the Bahrain International Circuit. “It’s the first time you get to see what everyone has been developing and can start to get a feel for your own car and the year ahead.
“Being here with Scuderia Ferrari HP and in the SF-25 for the first time is an incredible feeling. Our focus right now is on experimenting with different things, gathering as much data as possible and getting familiar with the car, and we’ve already learned a lot.
“It’s too early to really understand performance, but everything feels good and as a team we’re working on the best way to optimise each run. There’s more to do over the next few days to get through our programme and understand the car to the best of our ability, but right now I’m looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.”
