“Feels Like the First Day in Formula 1” – Dad Hamilton Relives 18-Year-Old Excitement Ahead of Son’s Ferrari Debut

From McLaren’s dominance to Williams’ resurgence, there’s a lot to watch for at the 2025 Australian GP. But the most anticipated story of all is Lewis Hamilton’s debut for Ferrari, which has been over a year in the making. Like the fans who are excited to see him race in red for the first time, his dad is also in the same boat.

Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’ father, has arguably been the biggest driving force behind his career. He made countless sacrifices and played a crucial role in helping Lewis reach F1 in 2007 and go on to dominate the sport, becoming the most successful driver of all time.

So it’s only natural that Anthony was present trackside, with a wide smile, eagerly awaiting his son’s next milestone moment at the age of 40.

In fact, Anthony compared the feeling to being in F1 for the first time.

“Feels like the first day in Formula 1 for us as well,” he said to Martin Brundle during his grid walk ahead of the race in Melbourne. “Same butterflies and anticipation… don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Representing Ferrari is one of the biggest moments in a driver’s career. And given the Prancing Horse has welcomed statistically F1’s greatest-ever driver, people have big expectations from this iconic association.

The Stevenage-born driver will be chasing his eighth title with the Italian squad, and he seems more than thrilled about it — having been spotted smiling in front of the cameras all weekend and looking more optimistic than he has in his last three years with Mercedes.

“He’s super happy. We’re super happy,” Anthony added.

Hamilton’s Australian GP so far

Although the Hamilton father-son duo looked excited ahead of the race on Sunday, the weekend has not been smooth for the Ferrari driver by any means. Lewis’ teammate Charles Leclerc looks to be much more comfortable with the car and showed that in all the practice sessions, and then more importantly, in qualifying.

Leclerc and Hamilton were not too far apart, but the Monegasque started in P7, one place ahead of his new teammate. The 40-year-old had expected the car to be faster than it was but was still satisfied with being close to Leclerc on the timesheets.

The start of the Australian GP was disrupted by rain, with crashes involving Isack Hadjar (on the formation lap), Jack Doohan, and Carlos Sainz bringing out the safety car. As a result, Hamilton struggled to gain positions in the early stages and remained stuck in P8, while Leclerc moved up to P5.