In January, we reported on why Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari deal goes approach past System 1, and you’ll learn that report right here. Two months later, it seems that we would have simply witnessed how that might materialize within the type of him placing his design efforts into a brand new ‘F44’ supercar, primarily based 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 permitted by Enzo Ferrari, earlier than his loss of life in 1988, and it was primarily based on System 1 know-how of the time. Though over 1,300 examples had been produced, its popularity 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, doubtlessly at a public occasion slightly than a press convention, as Melbourne hosted the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. However 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 observe. 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 unbelievable LaFerrari Aperta.
Hamilton had been linked with being concerned in a particular version of the AMG One when he was on the Mercedes F1 crew, however nothing got here to move. Final yr, High Gear Journal recommended 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 in some way. However maybe that is the venture it may subsequent bear in mind…
Not solely does Hamilton, who gained the dash on the Chinese language Grand Prix final weekend, convey his undoubted driving abilities 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 change into a outstanding activist for elevated range 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 enchantment.
As Lamborghini goes from energy to energy, within the American market particularly, maybe Ferrari may benefit from its F1 legend by placing his identify to its subsequent iconic supercar to place its Italian rival within the shade.
Supply: Motorsport.com
