Lewis Hamilton drives the Ferrari SF-23 at Fiorano
Not since Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari debut in November 1995 has so much of the world’s attention been focused on the Fiorano circuit as it was this past Wednesday.
This time it was to document and cheer the arrival of another F1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton has covered his first laps of the Fiorano circuit
The seven-time World Champion, who has joined Ferrari with an eye to breaking his tie with Schumacher, was in action at Ferrari’s private track on Wednesday morning as he laid down the laps in an SF-23.
Different car, different times, but Ferrari were quick to note one similarity – the weather.
Hamilton’s run took place in thick fog and ‘coincidentally’, read the Ferrari press release, ‘fog was also a factor on 16 November 1995, when Michael Schumacher, who would go on to be a seven-time World Champion, had his first run at Fiorano.’
That day Ferrari revealed the German had amassed 20 laps in a Ferrari 412 T2 while on Wednesday, Hamilton covered 30 laps in an SF-23. No official times were released for either outing.
It is, however, being claimed by Autocar that Hamilton’s lap times were ‘1 minute per lap’ as the former Mercedes driver dealt with fog, light rain and ‘some small errors’.
That’s some four seconds down on the track record that belongs to Schumacher, a 55.999 that he clocked in an F2004.
Leclerc’s fastest time at the Ferrari track is a reported 57.6s. But he was also off the pace on Wednesday with a 1:06 in the afternoon.
The times have not been confirmed by Ferrari.
But lap records aside, Hamilton says driving a Ferrari F1 car was “one of the best feelings” of his life.
“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,” he said.
“When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face.
“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 twenty years later, feeling those emotions all over again.”
