Lewis Hamilton’s highly anticipated Ferrari debut could be postponed and moved away from Fiorano if the team are forced to switch to ‘Plan B’ ahead of the F1 2025 season, it has been claimed.

Hamilton announced earlier this year that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025, ending his long and successful partnership with Mercedes.

Ferrari strike up ‘Plan B’ for Lewis Hamilton’s on-track debut

The British driver claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 race wins and pole positions, following his move from McLaren 2013.

Hamilton, who will turn 40 next month, will link up with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari after Carlos Sainz was forced to make way for the seven-time World Champion.

Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari has been the subject of much intrigue, with the most decorated driver in F1 history expected to officially start work with the sport’s most successful team in late January.

He is expected to receive his first taste of Ferrari machinery behind a previous F1 car, with the Scuderia yet to decide whether Hamilton’s maiden run will occur behind the wheel of the team’s 2022 chassis or the 2023 machine.

F1 rules dictate that cars older than two years must be used for private testing, with teams only allowed to use their current cars to capture promotional material on so-called filming days.

Ferrari’s pre-season preparations have traditionally commenced at the team’s Fiorano test track, with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel taking to the circuit behind the wheel of the 2012 car ahead of his arrival from Red Bull in late 2014.

In January this year, Sainz and Leclerc took to the track with the 2022 car in a so-called ‘wake-up’ test session held over two days and targeted at getting team and drivers back up to speed after the winter break.

However, the threat of bad weather has reportedly forced Ferrari to strike up a back-up plan for Hamilton’s debut.

Respected Italian publication Auto Racer has claimed that Hamilton is due to drive a Ferrari for the first time on either Tuesday January 21 or Wednesday January 22.

However, Ferrari have drawn up plans to move the run either to Mugello, which hosted the Tuscan Grand Prix during the pandemic-affected season of 2020, or Imola, the home of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s introductory test could even be pushed back to another day if adverse weather conditions render on-track running impossible.

The news comes after it emerged that Hamilton has already paid a ‘private’ visit to Ferrari’s Maranello factory ahead of his F1 2025 arrival despite being officially under contract with Mercedes until December 31.

Hamilton’s secret trip follows that of Sainz, signed to replace Vettel for the 2021 season, who visited Maranello in 2020 before he had formally cut ties with previous employers McLaren.

Ferrari announced earlier this week that the team’s F1 2025 car – codenamed Project 677 – will be launched on February 19, one day after F1’s season launch event involving all 10 teams in London.

Ferrari are expected to document Hamilton’s first day with the team, with a number of design details related to Project 677 surfacing over recent months – including a move to a pullrod front suspension layout.

A pullrod front suspension – favoured by the likes of McLaren and Red Bull – is believed to enhance airflow towards the car’s complex underbody, with the floor generating a significant proportion of the car’s overall downforce under the current ground-effect regulations.

The move towards a pullrod front suspension is said to have been directly influenced by Hamilton’s arrival, with his driving style closer in nature to new team-mate Charles Leclerc than Sainz.

Ferrari are also set to retain their divisive pullrod rear suspension layout despite the departure of former technical director Enrico Cardile during the F1 2024 season.

Ferrari and customer outfit Haas are the only two teams still competing with a pullrod rear suspension, with their rivals all opting for a pushrod layout.

It is thought that Ferrari view the pullrod rear suspension as a key factor behind the SF-24’s excellent tyre management.

Cardile, who announced that he will join Aston Martin in July, revealed the team found no significant performance differences between a pullrod and pushrod rear suspension layout when asked by media including PlanetF1.com at the launch of the 2024 car.

A revised wheelbase and adjustments to the internal mechanisms of the gearbox are also set to feature on Project 677.

Development of the 2025 Ferrari is being led by former Mercedes engineer Loic Serra, who was appointed to the role of chassis technical director ahead of his Ferrari arrival in October having initially been recruited to work under Cardile in May.

Serra is understood to be close to Hamilton, having shared the driver’s reservations over the failed zero-pod design concept pursued by Mercedes under former technical director Mike Elliott across 2022/23.