Lewis Hamilton drives Ferrari Formula 1 car for first time

Lewis Hamilton has had his first experience of a Ferrari Formula 1 car at the team’s Fiorano test track.

The 40-year-old seven-time champion tested a 2023 car on Wednesday as part of his acclimatisation work with his new team.

His test follows two days of work at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, of which the Fiorano track is a part.

Hamilton’s running was complete by shortly after 11:00 local time (10:00 GMT). Team-mate Charles Leclerc will drive the car in the afternoon as he begins to get back up to speed after the winter break.

Ferrari will release more information about Hamilton’s running later on Wednesday.

Hamilton will be limited to a total of 1,000km (621 miles) of what is known as testing of previous cars running by F1’s regulations.

The test will help him learn the way the Ferrari engine operates and allow him to build trust and working practices with his new race engineer Riccardo Adami and the rest of the team.

Adami worked with Carlos Sainz for the last four years and before that four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton has driven only Mercedes engines throughout his 18-year F1 career.

Modern F1 engines are 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids with sophisticated energy recovery systems and complicated control processes, many of which are operated by the driver in the cockpit.

Although the multiple power and performance modes of the various engines are all designed to do similar things, each manufacturer has different software and operating procedures, with drivers requiring time to become familiarised.