Ferrari kicked off the 2025 F1 season with Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel of the SF-25 during the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
It’s Hamilton’s first track outing for Ferrari in an official F1 session. The Briton already got a first taste of the SF-25 during the shakedown in Fiorano last week.
Although the 105-time race winner joined F1 in 2007, this season marks the first time he will head into a season powered by a Ferrari engine.
Hamilton’s morning session for Ferrari
The 7-time Champion was among the first drivers to hit the track, doing a 5-lap stint with aero rakes mounted to the car.
Once the aero rakes were removed, Hamilton launched into a rhythm even topping the time sheet at the end of the first hour.
Apart from a few slides Hamilton ran a smooth and uninterrupted session. Near the halfway point the Ferrari Driver clocked in a 1:31.834 which would turn out to be his fastest lap of day one of pre-season testing.
For the second half of the session Hamilton and Ferrari concentrated on long runs under a heavier fuel load.
At the close of this first 4-hour session, Hamilton had 70 laps under his belt with his fastest time landing him in P5.
This concluded day one of pre-season testing as Hamilton handed over the wheel of the SF-25 to Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc for the afternoon session.
Hamilton on his first day of F1 pre-season testing
On his first official F1 session as a Ferrari Driver, the 40-year-old said:
“Testing is always exciting. It’s the first time you get to see what everyone has been developing and can start to get a feel for your own car and the year ahead.
“Being here with Scuderia Ferrari HP and in the SF-25 for the first time is an incredible feeling.
“Our focus right now is on experimenting with different things, gathering as much data as possible and getting familiar with the car, and we’ve already learned a lot.
“It’s too early to really understand performance, but everything feels good and as a team we’re working on the best way to optimise each run.
“There’s more to do over the next few days to get through our programme and understand the car to the best of our ability, but right now I’m looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.”
