In January, we reported on why Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari deal goes manner past Method 1, and you may learn that report right here. Two months later, it seems that we would have simply witnessed how that might materialize within the type of him placing his design efforts into a brand new ‘F44’ supercar, based mostly on the legendary F40 from the mid-Nineteen Eighties…
Motorsport.com quotes Hamilton, who races with the quantity 44 in F1, as saying this in Australia: “One of many issues I actually need to do is I need to design a Ferrari. I need to do an F44. Baseline of an F40, with the precise stick shift. That’s what I’m gonna work on for the subsequent few years.”
The Ferrari F40 was the final highway automobile permitted by Enzo Ferrari, earlier than his dying in 1988, and it was based mostly on Method 1 expertise of the time. Though over 1,300 examples had been produced, its popularity as one of many best analogue supercars of all time has led to costs rocketing to between $1.5-3 million, and fellow F1 driver and present world championship chief Lando Norris owns one.
It’s not clear precisely when Hamilton mentioned this, probably at a public occasion slightly than a press convention, as Melbourne hosted the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. Nevertheless it’s value stating that on his first official day at Ferrari, the seven-times world champion posed subsequent to the V8-powered F40 exterior Enzo Ferrari’s workplace constructing at its Fiorano take a look at monitor. Was this a clue to what’s coming subsequent?
Hamilton has a powerful Ferrari-owning historical past, shopping for a 599 GTO in 2010, earlier than changing it with a 599 SA Aperta. His assortment contains each a LaFerrari, by which he was famously noticed driving round Beverley Hills with Justin Bieber, and an unbelievable LaFerrari Aperta.
Hamilton had been linked with being concerned in a particular version of the AMG One when he was on the Mercedes F1 group, however nothing got here to cross. Final yr, Prime Gear Journal steered that Ferrari was contemplating one other addition to its ultra-exclusive “Icona” collection, alongside the Monza SP1/SP2 and Daytona SP3, and that the LaFerrari can be reimagined someway. However maybe that is the mission it may subsequent take into account…
Not solely does Hamilton, who gained the dash on the Chinese language Grand Prix final weekend, convey his undoubted driving abilities to Maranello, however he brings an enormous profile and following. Knighted by the British royal household, his international attraction – comparable with fellow gigastars Tiger Woods and LeBron James – has appealed to a far broader viewers than F1 followers, and he’s additionally change into a distinguished activist for elevated range and social justice.
His pursuits in vogue and music have additionally elevated his affect exterior of the cockpit, and his philanthropism and charity work means Ferrari shouldn’t be solely getting one of many best F1 drivers of all time however a real icon with mass attraction.
As Lamborghini goes from power to power, within the American market specifically, maybe Ferrari may benefit from its F1 legend by placing his identify to its subsequent iconic supercar to place its Italian rival within the shade.
Supply: Motorsport.com
