The Tifosi had been waiting for almost an entire year to see Lewis Hamilton roll out in the iconic red of the Scuderia. That moment arrived earlier this week when the #44 driver undertook his first test at the team’s Fiorano Circuit.
The event was always going to be a crowded affair but the La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Mario Salvini revealed exactly how monumental the turnout was. Speaking to talkSport Driving’s Jon Jackson, the veteran Italian journalist narrated his eyewitness stories from Hamilton‘s first-ever Ferrari test.
As a matter of tradition, the Tifosi gathered on a public bridge just outside the Fiorano track. Salvini explained that it was the only vantage point to get eyes on the track and according to him, more than 1,000 fans had camped outside to see the Briton’s first run in a Ferrari car.
When asked if Hamilton’s reception had outgunned Sebastian Vettel’s first day at Ferrari, he quickly replied, “For sure, it [the reception] was much bigger [as compared to] Sebastian Vettel.” In fact, Salvini also recalled people camping outside the circuit from almost 5 AM, when Hamilton only rolled out at 9:16 AM.
Vettel switched teams from Red Bull to Ferrari at the end of the 2014 season. In fact, the four-time world champion got the privilege of driving a Ferrari car at Fiorano in November 2014 itself, as the Bulls had released him by then. Back then, Vettel also got to drive a two-year-old car — the F2012 — like Hamilton.
It was a “fairytale” move for the German driver, as he was moving to a team where his idol Michael Schumacher won five titles, so the first experience in a Ferrari car was understandably “magical”. However, as Salvini said, Hamilton’s arrival at the Scuderia has outshined Vettel’s debut in 2014 by some margin.
️ “Can he complete the masterpiece of his career?”
Lewis Hamilton has driven his first lap in a Ferrari car at the constructor’s test track at Fiorano pic.twitter.com/f60SIC34LU
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) January 22, 2025
Jackson also quizzed the Italian journalist about comparisons between Hamilton’s first day at Ferrari versus that of the legendary Schumacher, who made his Ferrari debut in late 1995, just before his move to the Scuderia from the 1996 F1 season onwards.
Was Schumacher’s reception at Fiorano as huge as Hamilton’s?
Salvini acknowledged that he does not exactly recall the numbers present for Schumacher’s induction as a Scuderia Ferrari driver. However, he is sure that the crowds were in fact much bigger for Hamilton than the German driver.
Coming into Ferrari as only a two-time world champion then, the hype around Schumacher’s arrival was not as meteoric as compared with the #44 driver, who comes into the Ferrari fold with a record-equalling seven world titles (the other driver being Schumacher himself who won five consecutive titles with Ferrari).
That said, Schumacher also did garner a big crowd who were camped outside on the bridge just like for Hamilton. But Salvini claimed that the crowds got smaller and smaller as the years rolled by. The same could apply to Hamilton but no bets are off if he manages to win the title in his first year in 2025.
