Lewis Hamilton Confident Of Ferrari Glory After Taking Wheel Of New F1 Car

Lewis Hamilton is convinced that this season could be Ferrari's year after he drove for the first time on Wednesday the Formula One team's car for the upcoming season, with a record eighth world title in his sights. Hamilton delighted hopeful fans by putting the new SF-25 car through its paces at Ferrari's own track in Fiorano Modenese in northern Italy before stopping to salute spectators who are hoping he can end the Italian team's long world championship drought. Ferrari haven't won the constructors title since 2008 and Kimi Raikkonen was the last man to claim the driver's title with them the year before, but asked whether he thought the 'Scuderia' were ready to win the world championship, Hamilton simply said "yes".

"I've worked with two world championship winning teams before, I know what a winning team looks and feels like," Hamilton told reporters. 

"The passion here is like nothing you've ever seen. They've got absolutely every ingredient they need to win a world championship and it's just about putting all the pieces together.

"Everyone just has a really calm and good approach. No one's like we're perfect in every single area. Everyone's like we need to elevate everywhere and they're leaving no stone unturned to try and do that."

At 40 years old Hamilton isn't just F1's biggest star, he's also one the sport's elder statesmen, but he is full of youthful enthusiasm for a new challenge at Ferrari after falling way behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen in his final three seasons at Mercedes.

Since losing the 2021 drivers' title to Verstappen in controversial circumstances in the final GP, Hamilton has finished sixth, third and then seventh in 2024, some 214 points behind his Dutch rival who has won the last four