The 2025 Formula One season will begin in Melbourne in just three weeks, and fans are anxious to find out as much as they can before the season’s first race lights up.

Many drivers signed new contracts for 2025 as a result of veterans like Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr.

making significant moves to different teams and a number of young drivers joining the grid ahead of the season.

Now that the salaries of all 20 drivers have supposedly been made public, some information about these new contracts has surfaced.

Many Formula One drivers live in the opulent Monte Carlo and are considered to be among the top paid athletes in the world of sports.

It is therefore not surprising that nearly all of the drivers on the circuit are making a base salary of over £1 million this season, with many making much more.

After deducting a number of off-track deals and bonuses from his base pay, his total income is estimated to be approximately $100 million (£79.24 million).

The complete 2025 Formula 1 basic salary list is available on Racing News 365: Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, £65 million Scuderia Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, £60 million Charles Leclerc, £34 million, Scuderia Ferrari.

McLaren’s Lando Norris: £20 million Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso: £20 million Mercedes and George Russell: £15 million £10 million for Carlos Sainz and Williams Racing.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton looks into the distance while balancing his yellow Ferrari helmet on one hand

Lewis Hamilton has brought back his original yellow helmet design for his first season at Ferrari

 

Lewis Hamilton called for more changes to his new Ferrari SF-25 after the car’s shakedown at Fiorano earlier this week, it has been claimed.

 

And the fixes are expected to arrive in time for the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain next Wednesday (

 

Lewis Hamilton requests further changes after Ferrari SF-25 debut

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

 

After presenting the team’s F1 2025 car in the immediate aftermath of Formula 1’s season-launch event in London on Tuesday, Ferrari were back in Italy the following morning to conduct a filming day with the SF-25 car.

 

Charles Leclerc spent Wednesday morning in the cockpit at the Fiorano test track, completing around 30 laps before handing over to new team-mate Hamilton for the afternoon session.

 

The seven-time World Champion’s first taste of the SF-25 marked a return to the venue where Hamilton completed his maiden test as a Ferrari driver with the team’s 2023 car on January 22.

 

According to unofficial reports from the test, Hamilton’s fastest lap time with the SF-25 was around 0.8 seconds slower than Leclerc, although it is said that the drivers were carrying out different programs at Fiorano.

 

While Leclerc, entering his seventh full season as a Ferrari driver, was able to push from the off, Hamilton’s focus was on building his confidence and continuing his adaptation to the team’s functions and systems after an 11-year stint with rivals Mercedes.

 

 

Both drivers are understood to have provided positive initial feedback on the SF-25, which is rumoured to be 0.4 seconds faster than Ferrari’s 2024 car.

 

A report by the respected Italian publication Auto Racer has claimed that Hamilton has asked for ‘small details’ to be changed ahead of the start of F1’s official three-day test in Bahrain next week.

 

The seven-time World Champion’s requests are described as ‘relatively minor’ with no ‘strong differences’ between the settings used by Hamilton and Leclerc.

 

 

Hamilton’s latest requests come after he reportedly struggled with the pedals of the Ferrari during his test debut at Fiorano last month.

 

Unlike Mercedes, who are understood to use Carbon Industrie brakes, Ferrari’s braking materials are provided by competitors Brembo.

 

After a couple of lockups during his maiden Ferrari outing, Hamilton is believed to have called for adjustments to the pedals of the team’s 2023 car.

 

 

A fix was put in place for his second Ferrari test appearance in Barcelona a week later, with engineers reportedly putting in ‘a lot of work’ to meet Hamilton’s request.

 

However, Hamilton went on to crash out of the test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a minor setback to his F1 2025 preparations.

 

With no imagery or footage available of the incident, theories suggested Hamilton’s accident may have been caused by a bump on the track or his inexperience with the Ferrari engine.

 

Addressing the incident for the first time this week, however, the 40-year-old hinted that he simply made a mistake as he started to explore “the limits” of his new machinery.

 

He said: “I’ve enjoyed the testing that we’ve had. I’ve had to find the limits of the car as quick as possible, because I only have a handful of days.”

 

He then laughed: “And I definitely did that!”

 

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after his first outing with the SF-25 on Wednesday, Hamilton opened up about the challenges of adapting to a new car, admitting that the Ferrari is “completely different” to what he is used to in F1.

 

 

 

 

Mercedes engines have powered each of Hamilton’s 356 F1 appearances to date stretching back to his debut season in 2007, with his only previous team switch occurring when he swapped McLaren for Mercedes in 2013.

 

He explained: “It’s completely different. I thought it [would be just] another Formula 1 car.

 

“I thought it would be [like] when I went from McLaren to Mercedes – there were similarities, but I guess it was still powered by Mercedes, so the sound, the vibration, was all the same or was similar.

 

“Whilst there were slightly different characteristics of the car, this is a step with the whole thing being completely different.

 

“It’s a really exciting experience. This is something I’ve really enjoyed trying to wrap my mind around, particularly also just in settings and the terminology they use, the different ways that they can set up a car – that’s taken some getting used to, for sure.

 

“It’s rare that you just jump in and it just fits.

 

“For example, the steering wheel is completely different, everything, all these switches are completely different. The software is different, everything.

 

“Not only am I having to adapt to that, I am adapting to a car that’s made quite differently from what I’ve worked with in the past to achieve a similar sort of thing.

 

 

 

 

“The feeling is a lot different. I don’t feel that currently I’m having to change my driving style too much. I’m actually feeling quite comfortable in the car and just taking one step at a time.

 

“I hope, and we’ll see as we get further down the line at the real race circuits that we go into, just how much aligned and how much change I might need to do.

 

“But the key is to be open-minded and be dynamic.

 

“Luckily, with my experience, I should be able to do that.”

 

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.

 

Lewis Hamilton rounds a corner in the Ferrari SF-23 at Fiorano

Lewis Hamilton drives the Ferrari SF-23 at Fiorano

 

Reflecting on his first experience at the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car, Lewis Hamilton said it was a racing machine unlike any other he had before.

 

Hamilton has embarked on a fresh chapter in his storied F1 career, calling time on his iconic Mercedes association which produced six World Championships, 84 wins, 153 podiums and 78 pole positions, in order to join Ferrari on a multi-year deal.

 

 

And the seven-time World Champion has been getting to grips with Ferrari machinery ahead of his big debut in less than a month at the Australian Grand Prix, using up his four permitted TPC [testing of previous car] days, before enjoying his first laps in Ferrari’s F1 2025 challenger – the SF-25 – at Fiorano on Wednesday.

 

And in Hamilton’s first interview as a Ferrari driver, posted on the team’s YouTube channel, he reflected on what it was like to drive a Ferrari F1 car for the first time, after he started his journey by getting behind the wheel of the SF-23 at Fiorano.

 

Hamilton has always raced in F1 with Mercedes power until now, first with McLaren from 2007-12 and then Mercedes from 2013-24, but Hamilton stressed the Ferrari was something else compared to those cars he previously drove.

 

 

“It’s nothing like the car that I had before, or the last 10, 12, 17 years,” he said.

 

“It’s unique in its own. And to feel the vibration of the Ferrari engine for the first time, wow! That’s what I think ultimately put the biggest smile on my face.”

 

Armed with the SF-25, Hamilton will look to return to the F1 title scene for the first time since 2021, and resume his hunt of that record-breaking eighth World Championship.

 

However, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, when speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, at the launch of the SF-25, would not be drawn into making a prediction over whether this will be a title-worthy Ferrari.

 

Asked for his level of confidence on that matter, he replied: “I don’t have this approach. I don’t have to be confident or not confident.

 

 

“I have to do my job. I have to push everybody to do the best and to get the best from what we have, and we will see the result in when we’ll be on track.

 

“But I don’t have to be confident or not. This is my point of view. It’s not the right approach. And if I am confident, it’s not about the car. I’m confident because the team is improving, that everybody did a good step, between ’23 and ’24 on every single area, on reliability, performance, operation, pit-stop, strategy, and we have to continue into this direction.”

 

Similarly, Vasseur did not want to make any predictions on the teams that will feature in the F1 2025 title battle, Ferrari having narrowly missed out on the Constructors’ crown last season to McLaren, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured his fourth straight Drivers’ Championship.

 

Asked if he sees McLaren as the F1 2025 title favourites, or if he thinks Red Bull and Mercedes will pose an equal threat, Vasseur replied: “Last year, it was a very good season for F1 overall, because the first part of the season it was Red Bull [leading], then it was us, then McLaren, then Mercedes, then we came back, and it was like this all the season.

 

“It means that it’s very, very difficult to make a prediction on who will lead the pack this season, and if someone will lead the pack.

 

 

 

“We were fighting until the last corner of the season with McLaren. We have to build up the 2025 season on this one, on 2024, but we won’t change the approach because we did well or not, the last 12 or so races of ’24.

 

“We have to push, to continue to develop the car, to continue to improve in every single pillar of the performance into the team, in every single department. And the approach is this one, and the mood is a good one.”

 

 

 

As Formula 1 wrapped up the F1 75 group launch, Ferrari surprised as they revealed the first renderings of the official 2025 car, the SF-25, ahead of Wednesday’s shakedown.

 

The team released several pictures of the 2025 car, Lewis Hamilton’s first-ever Ferrari machinery as the Briton has joined Charles Leclerc in a formidable line-up.

 

Ferrari: ‘Thousandths of a second’ will make the difference

But will it bring an end to Ferrari’s 18-year title drought?

 

Ferrari last won a Drivers’ Championship title in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, and while the Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel came close, the near misses have left Ferrari’s Tifosi hungry for more.

 

Many are predicting F1 2025 could finally be the year.

 

While the most striking aspect of the SF-25 is its HP-branded livery that features a prominent HP logo on the engine cover and a blue rear win, this year Ferrari have gone for a darker red with plenty of carbon fibre on display.

 

 

This year Ferrari have switched to a pull rod front suspension set-up, declaring it would ‘clean up the airflow around the car, while also giving greater scope for further aero development, which had been pretty much exhausted with the previous iteration’.

 

Designed to maximise the development potential of the car, Ferrari believe F1 2025 will be a season in which ‘thousandths of a second in lap time’ will make the difference.

 

Ferrari’s Technical Director of Chassis Loic Serra said: “The SF-25 is an evolution of the SF-24, which gave us an excellent starting point to work from. Having said that, we have worked hard, changing 99% of the car, evolving its architecture to maximise performance.

 

“The pull rod front suspension is only the most obvious of many significant changes.

 

“We can expect the coming season to be very closely contested, with outcomes decided by thousandths of a second. We are all set to give it our best shot to find those gains, even the marginal ones, that can make the difference. We are looking forward to being competitive right from the very first race.”

 

“The launch of a new car is a moment of great emotion and pride for the entire team,” added team boss Fred Vasseur. “The SF-25 is the result of months of intense work carried out with great dedication in Maranello, and we are excited to see the fruits of our efforts materialise and be ready to hit the track.”

 

“Last season saw us fighting for the Constructors’ title until the very last corner, and we are determined to build on that solid foundation with the goal of winning both championships. We have a new driver line-up, with Lewis joining Charles in the team, and we feel ready to take that step forward as a team to become the best.

 

“We are aware of the challenges ahead, but we are ready to give our best to compete at the highest level, also drawing strength from the passion and enthusiasm of our fans, who are an endless source of inspiration. Now it’s time to focus and let the track do the talking. I can’t wait for the season to begin.”

 

Ferrari are scheduled to put the first laps on the SF-25 in a shakedown at the Fiorano circuit on Wednesday morning, 9:30am sharp, with Leclerc covering the first laps before handing the car over to Hamilton in the afternoon.

 

The team-mates are each permitted to cover 100km as per Formula 1’s filming day regulations.

 

After the shakedown at Fiorano, Ferrari will next be action inBahrain, where the only pre-season test session will be held from 26 to 28 February.