Lewis Hamilton Visits Ferrari F1 Factory For The First Time

Lewis Hamilton has made his first visit to the Ferrari F1 factory in Maranello.

Hamilton will turn his first laps as a Scuderia driver on January 22 at the Fiorano circuit in Ferrari's 2022 F1-75 car.

Hamilton visited Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters on Monday to begin his integration with the team. The Briton sat down with team principal Frédéric Vasseur—the pair go way back with Vasseur overseeing Hamilton’s championship-winning campaigns in F3 Euro Series and GP2 in 2005 and 2006.

Hamilton also met his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, who was in Carlos Sainz's ear last season.

During his visit, the team worked to fit Hamilton into his new car—including pouring a seat and adjusting ergonomics including pedal spacing and steering wheel position. Hamilton also spent time in the Ferrari simulator. The team has planned technical meetings and briefings over the next two days to prepare Hamilton for his first test at Fiorano.

Hamilton is absolutely stoked to finally join the Scuderia. "There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever, and today, my first as a Ferrari driver, is one of those days," Hamilton posted on social media. "I’ve been lucky enough to achieve things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red. I couldn’t be happier to realize that dream today."

A report from Motorsport.com suggests Ferrari's Tifosi are going wild for Lewis. Hotels around Maranello are fully booked, and the local mayor has requested heightened security and traffic control measures in anticipation of the Fiorano test.

Hamilton’s first test in the F1-75 will be shared alongside teammate Charles Leclerc before the team shuffles off to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya later in the month— Ferrari reportedly plans to maximize its allocation of 1000 kilometers under F1’s testing regulations for previous cars.

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