Lewis Hamilton in action during the Ferrari SF-25 shakedown at Fiorano
Lewis Hamilton got his first taste of the Ferrari SF-25 in a shakedown run at Fiorano
Lewis Hamilton was 0.8 seconds slower than new team-mate Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari SF-25 shakedown at Fiorano, it has been claimed.
It comes just weeks after the former Mercedes driver lapped almost two seconds slower than Leclerc in a tyre test in Barcelona.
Report: Lewis Hamilton slower than Charles Leclerc in Ferrari SF-25 shakedown
Hamilton’s preparations for his first season as a Ferrari driver reached a key milestone on Tuesday when the team revealed their new car for F1 2025 in the immediate aftermath of Formula 1’s season-launch event in London.
The SF-25 recorded its first laps the following morning as Leclerc took to the circuit at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track for a brief shakedown test, completing around 30 laps before Hamilton took over for the afternoon session.
The shakedown represented the only running Hamilton and Leclerc will get behind the wheel of the SF-25 before the start of F1’s single pre-season test in Bahrain, which begins next Wednesday (February 26).
Ferrari elected against issuing an official report of the Fiorano shakedown with the run classed as a private filming day.
However, a report by Spanish publication Marca has claimed that Hamilton’s fastest lap at Fiorano was a massive eight tenths slower than Leclerc according to unofficial data.
The comparison is considered unrepresentative given that the Ferrari drivers were running on a special Pirelli tyres for the shakedown, which bear little resemblance to the tyres set to be raced during the season in F1 2025.
Hamilton’s latest pace deficit to Leclerc comes after Pirelli provided the first official comparisons between the new Ferrari team-mates over the course of a two-day tyre test in Barcelona earlier this month.
Having outpaced Leclerc by 0.130 seconds on the first day of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where they shared a modified version of Ferrari’s 2024 car, Hamilton trailed his team-mate by a huge 1.788 seconds 24 hours later.
Pirelli stressed at the time that the published laptimes carried ‘no real significance given the different work programmes carried out’ by Ferrari and McLaren, who were also on track at the Spanish Grand Prix venue.
A separate report by Italian outlet Auto Racer has shed more light on the claimed fastest times, indicating that the Ferrari drivers were on separate programmes.
It is said that the greater experience of Leclerc, preparing for his seventh full season with Ferrari having arrived at Maranello ahead of the 2019 season, allowed him to push straight away even though ‘pure performance was not the priority’ of his run.
The main focus of Hamilton, meanwhile, was on building his confidence and getting a clearer picture of what he requires from the team and the car ahead of the new season.
It is reported that both drivers gave ‘positive feedback’ to the team after their respective runs.
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Hamilton, who turned 40 last month, struggled for one-lap pace during his final season at Mercedes in 2024, qualifying behind team-mate George Russell at 19 of the season’s 24 races.
It prompted the seven-time World Champion, whose only pole position over the last three seasons came at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, to concede that he is “not fast anymore” at the penultimate round of the season in Qatar.
Leclerc, meanwhile, is widely regarded as one of the fastest drivers over a single lap on the current grid.
The Monegasque has claimed 26 pole positions since 2019, putting him four clear of current Aston Martin driver and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, who made his F1 debut back in 2001, on the all-time list.
However, Leclerc has been limited to just eight race wins to date, with Hamilton the record holder having claimed a 105th career triumph at Spa last July.
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