In January, we reported on why Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari deal goes manner past Formulation 1, and you’ll learn that report right here. Two months later, it seems that we’d 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 street automotive authorized by Enzo Ferrari, earlier than his loss of life in 1988, and it was based mostly on Formulation 1 know-how of the time. Though over 1,300 examples have been produced, its status 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 reasonably than a press convention, as Melbourne hosted the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. But it surely’s value declaring 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 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 contains each a LaFerrari, by 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 cross. Final yr, High Gear Journal prompt 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 could be reimagined one way or the other. However maybe that is the mission it may subsequent take note of…
Not solely does Hamilton, who received the dash on the Chinese language Grand Prix final weekend, carry his undoubted driving abilities to Maranello, however he brings an enormous profile and following. Knighted by the British royal household, his world attraction – comparable with fellow gigastars Tiger Woods and LeBron James – has appealed to a far broader viewers than F1 followers, and he’s additionally change into 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 will not be solely getting one of many best F1 drivers of all time however a real icon with mass attraction.
As Lamborghini goes from power to power, 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
