In January, we reported on why Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari deal goes manner past Components 1, and you may learn that report right here. Two months later, it seems that we’d 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-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 following few years.”
The Ferrari F40 was the final street automobile accepted by Enzo Ferrari, earlier than his loss of life in 1988, and it was based mostly on Components 1 expertise of the time. Though over 1,300 examples had been produced, its fame 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 stated this, probably at a public occasion reasonably than a press convention, as Melbourne hosted the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. Nevertheless it’s price mentioning 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 check 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 consists of each a LaFerrari, through which 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 staff, however nothing got here to move. Final 12 months, Prime Gear Journal urged 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 in some way. However maybe that is the challenge it may subsequent keep in mind…
Not solely does Hamilton, who gained the dash on the Chinese language Grand Prix final weekend, deliver his undoubted driving expertise 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 grow to be a outstanding activist for elevated variety and social justice.
His pursuits in trend 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 energy to energy, within the American market specifically, maybe Ferrari may 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
