In January, we reported on why Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari deal goes manner past Method 1, and you’ll learn that report right here. Two months later, it seems that we would have simply witnessed how that would 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 wish to do is I wish to design a Ferrari. I wish 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 automotive permitted by Enzo Ferrari, earlier than his demise in 1988, and it was based mostly on Method 1 expertise of the time. Though over 1,300 examples had been produced, its repute 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, doubtlessly at a public occasion relatively than a press convention, as Melbourne hosted the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. Nevertheless it’s price declaring that on his first official day at Ferrari, the seven-times world champion posed subsequent to the V8-powered F40 outdoors 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 robust Ferrari-owning historical past, shopping for a 599 GTO in 2010, earlier than changing it with a 599 SA Aperta. His assortment consists of each a LaFerrari, wherein he was famously noticed driving round Beverley Hills with Justin Bieber, and an unimaginable LaFerrari Aperta.
Hamilton had been linked with being concerned in a particular version of the AMG One when he was on the Mercedes F1 workforce, however nothing got here to move. Final 12 months, High Gear Journal steered that Ferrari was contemplating one other addition to its ultra-exclusive “Icona” sequence, alongside the Monza SP1/SP2 and Daytona SP3, and that the LaFerrari could be reimagined someway. However maybe that is the mission it might subsequent bear in mind…
Not solely does Hamilton, who received the dash on the Chinese language Grand Prix final weekend, carry his undoubted driving expertise to Maranello, however he brings an enormous profile and following. Knighted by the British royal household, his world enchantment – comparable with fellow gigastars Tiger Woods and LeBron James – has appealed to a far broader viewers than F1 followers, and he’s additionally turn out to be a distinguished activist for elevated range and social justice.
His pursuits in vogue and music have additionally elevated his affect outdoors 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 enchantment.
As Lamborghini goes from power to power, within the American market specifically, maybe Ferrari might make the most of its F1 legend by placing his title to its subsequent iconic supercar to place its Italian rival within the shade.
Supply: Motorsport.com
