All Set for Hamilton's First Ferrari Test: A New Era Begins

Jan.21 - Hotel rooms are fully booked in the region surrounding Ferrari's Maranello HQ, as Lewis Hamilton gets his red-coloured Formula 1 career underway.

As he posed with a striking black suit and an F40 outside Enzo Ferrari's iconic old house, rumours swirled that he had joined fellow seven time world champion Michael Schumacher as a rare Ferrari driver who was offered the opportunity to live in the villa.

"I love seeing the house and the legendary rooms, but no - I won't be living there," Hamilton, 40, said.

An unusually big crowd of Tifosi had gathered in the rain and freezing temperatures to be part of the former Mercedes driver's first official day as a Ferrari driver. La Repubblica newspaper said the Tifosi had waited "since dawn".

Inside, Hamilton toured the factory, met with officials, engineers and workers, and had a seat fitting to iron out the last little details ahead of his first run in two and three-year Ferrari single seaters at Fiorano on Wednesday.

"Hamilton and (Charles) Leclerc will alternate at the wheel of the SF-23 and the F1-75 - single-seaters that are at least two years old as permitted by the regulations for the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC)," reported La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Another outing for the duo is also reportedly scheduled for Barcelona next week.

Hamilton met up with his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, who had also worked with his friend Sebastian Vettel as well as the now Williams-departed Carlos Sainz.

Pundits are now considering which 2025 Ferrari driver will have the edge this season.

"Lewis feels things differently to others and has a really strong race pace," said former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi. "But Charles is really strong in qualifying and starting position is always very important.

"It will be extremely interesting to see what happens between the two of them."

Hamilton's former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, however, expects that a change of colours for the Briton over the winter will not change much else.

"Charles will be at a similar level to George Russell," the German said, referring to the fact that Russell generally beat Hamilton at Mercedes last year. "They are the best of the next generation, except for (Max) Verstappen, who is a bit higher.

"Lewis has just been struggling, and we don't really know why," Rosberg added. "So if it's like last season, Charles will beat Lewis in the same way that George beat Lewis."

However, Rosberg also acknowledges Hamilton's special talent and achievements.

"Lewis is the greatest of all time," he said. "We still give him the benefit of the doubt that he can be at his best again and then he should be slightly ahead of Charles at the end of the year. So we'll see."

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