Hamilton waves to fans as he drives a Ferrari F1 car for the first time

FIORANO MODENESE, Italy — Lewis Hamilton drove a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time Wednesday and described it as "one of the best feelings of my life.”

Hamilton was behind the wheel of a 2023-specification Ferrari SF-23 bearing his racing number, 44, at the team’s Fiorano test track and wore a new helmet design in yellow with a prominent Prancing Horse logo.

The 40-year-old British driver set out for his first lap at 9:16 a.m. local time in light fog and twice waved to a crowd of around 1,000 spectators, who had gathered on a nearby bridge despite the cold and wet weather.

“When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face,” Hamilton said of his first drive in a Ferrari since joining the Italian team for the 2025 season. “It reminded me of the very first time I tested a Formula 1 car, it was such an exciting and special moment, and here I am, almost 20 years later, feeling those emotions all over again.”

Part-way through the day, Hamilton headed over to fans who had waited for hours in the wet conditions since early morning for a glimpse of him behind the wheel. Wearing a jacket in Ferrari red, he waved, gave a thumbs-up gesture and put a hand to his heart. Hamilton's mother was among his family members on hand for the occasion.

“I've been lucky enough to have many firsts in my career, from the first test to the first race, podium, win and championship, so I wasn’t sure how many more firsts I had but driving a Scuderia Ferrari HP car for the first time this morning, was one of the best feelings of my life,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton has shaken up F1 with his move to Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world titles.

There was excitement Wednesday from one of Italy's biggest sports stars, too.

After reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open, top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner was asked by an Italian reporter if he had seen anything on social media about Hamilton’s Ferrari debut.

“It’s still pretty strange to see him in red,” Sinner said, “but it’ll be a great season.”

Hamilton, who arrived Monday at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters for his first day at work with the new team, has said he's fulfilling a childhood dream.

“I already knew from the outside how passionate the Ferrari family is, from everyone in the team to the tifosi (fans),” he said. “But to now witness it firsthand as a Ferrari driver has been awe-inspiring. That passion runs through their veins and you can’t help but be energized by it.”

F1 tightly restricts teams from testing current-specification cars but the rules are more loose for older cars like the SF-23 that Hamilton drove Wednesday. The F1 regulations for 2025 allow Hamilton to drive up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) over four days in older F1 cars under the “testing of previous cars” rule. The SF-23 is the most recent Ferrari that's eligible.

Pre-season testing for the new season's cars is from Feb. 26 through 28 in Bahrain.

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AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.

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