There is set to be a lot of pressure on Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari as he attempts to win his eighth world title with the Maranello-based squad.
It is the first time in Hamilton’s 18-year F1 career that he will be driving for a team that is not based in the UK, and he is already starting to say some Italian phrases with his engineers.
Hamilton has already called his first weeks at Ferrari ‘tough’ but seems to be progressing well after taking part in tests for the team with older cars, then recently running their 2025 challenger at Fiorano for the first time along with Charles Leclerc.
Although the times are not a competitive representation of where they are ahead of the season, Leclerc was marginally quicker than Hamilton throughout their few runs permitted under the filming day rules.
Hamilton is taking to life at Ferrari well given the history of the brand and its position as being one of the most successful F1 teams of all time.
However, former F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer has explained what Fred Vasseur must do with Hamilton in these crucial early stages when speaking on The Race: F1 Team Principal podcast.
Hamilton will need to embed himself into Ferrari’s Italian culture and while he is partially there by being a part-time fashion mogul, he will need the help of his team early on if they want their partnership to be successful according to Szafnauer.
“What you have to do for him is manage the change, because it will be different for him. So those differences you have to introduce Lewis to very quickly and often so he’s comfortable in his new environment as quickly as possible,” said Szafnauer.
“It starts to seem second nature soon, but it takes time. You want to shortcut the time that it takes for Lewis to feel 100% in his new environment.”
Lewis Hamilton has ‘impressed everybody’ so far at Ferrari says Jean Alesi
Hamilton is now two months into his tenure at Ferrari and will be taking part in his first F1 pre-season test ahead of the 2025 season.
Jean Alesi said people in Ferrari have told him Hamilton ‘impressed everybody’ so far, both with how he has dealt with the culture shock and his work ethic.
Ferrari has also shown that it is willing to work with him on car matters early on, having made tweaks to the front suspension at the request of ex-Mercedes engineer Loic Serra.
The 2025 season will be a massive challenge for Hamilton at 40 years old, but it appears everything is going smoothly so far at Ferrari.
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