Lewis Hamilton skilled driving a Ferrari System One automotive for the primary time on Wednesday as Italy welcomed the seven-time world champion like one among its personal.
The Italian newspapers have been awash with protection of , throughout which the 40-year-old posed at Maranello wearing a classy Italian swimsuit and in entrance of the enduring Ferrari F40.
Followers who gathered on Wednesday morning at Ferrari’s Fiorano take a look at observe didn’t have lengthy to attend to get a primary glimpse of Hamilton as he left the pit field at 9.16am to get his first style of the Ferrari SF-23, the automotive utilized by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz for the 2023 F1 marketing campaign.
Rising by means of thick fog on the take a look at observe close to Maranello, Hamilton waved to followers as he accomplished his first laps, with banners erected by the Tifosi to have fun his arrival.
Credit score: Sky Sports activities
Hamilton has moved to the Scuderia from Mercedes, the place he gained six of his seven world titles and 84 of his 105 race wins in .
Hamilton has signed a multi-season contract with the Italian staff, which means he can be with them subsequent 12 months, too, when the game introduces radical rules that might shake up the established order considerably.
After a tough previous couple of years at Mercedes, when he appeared at occasions to wrestle for motivation, Hamilton is adamant he can rediscover his greatest type in Italy and win a file eighth title. If he does so, it will finish Ferrari’s 18-year anticipate a drivers’ champion.
The Briton is anticipated to earn greater than £50 million per season at Ferrari, the place he can be paired with Monegasque driver Leclerc after changing Spain’s Sainz, who has joined Williams.
Ferrari will launch their new automotive formally on February 19 in Maranello, someday after F1’s public launch occasion at London’s O2 Enviornment, the place all groups and drivers can be paraded on stage with their vehicles dressed on this season’s liveries.
Hamilton will get the primary probability to drive his new Ferrari for actual on the pre-season take a look at in Bahrain from February 26-28. The .
‘Lewis-mania has already began’
The Italian newspapers wasted little time in heralding the arrival of Hamilton and the optimism it has generated among the many Tifosi.
“Lewis is already house,” learn the headline in Gazzetta dello Sport, alongside the already well-known picture of Hamilton’s unveiling that was carried throughout each Italian each day newspaper.
“Offered out resorts, followers ready: Lewis-mania has already began,” declared Corriere dello Sport throughout a full unfold of Hamilton arrival photos, in addition to a previous {photograph} of Hamilton and his canine, Roscoe, subsequent to Leclerc and his canine, Leo. On the entrance web page of the identical newspaper, Hamilton was labelled “The gentleman in purple”.
“Sir Hamilton, the Ferrarista”, learn the headline in Quotidiano Sportivo, including: “Already an Italian pariah in Maranello: it’s time for the take a look at in Fiorano.”
The primary story in Autosprint hailed Wednesday as “Ferrari, it’s Lewis day!”
