Mercedes sponsors IWC have followed in the footsteps of Red Bull’s junior team and Jeremy Clarkson by recreating Lewis Hamilton’s iconic first photograph as a Ferrari driver.

Today (February 1) marks a year since Hamilton’s move to Ferrari from Mercedes for the F1 2025 season was announced, with the seven-time World Champion agreeing a multi-year contract with the Italian team.

Mercedes sponsors IWC recreate Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari image

Hamilton made his first public appearances as a Ferrari driver last month, making his first official visit to the team’s Maranello factory and testing a Ferrari F1 car for the first time at the team’s Fiorano test track.

The British driver’s preparations for the new season suffered a setback this week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where he crashed heavily during Ferrari’s second private test of the winter.

Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc are due to return to the Spanish Grand Prix venue in the coming days, driving a modified version of Ferrari’s 2024 car to assist Pirelli’s development of the new tyres for F1 2026.

Hamilton’s first day at Ferrari was immortalised by the release of an official photograph of the seven-time World Champion stood outside the house used as an office by legendary team founder Enzo Ferrari.

He is pictured alongside a Ferrari F40, described by the team as Hamilton’s favourite supercar.

The image proved a huge hit on social media and stands as the most-liked F1-related Instagram post of all time, with 5.6 million reactions at the time of writing.

The image has been replicated elsewhere across the F1 world, with Red Bull junior team VCARB posting a mock-up image of new signing Isack Hadjar wearing a blazer outside the team’s factory.

The caption took inspiration from Hamilton’s first official statement as a Ferrari driver, reading: “There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever and today is one of those days.”

Days later, celebrity F1 fan Clarkson took to Instagram to post an image of himself suited and booted beside to a Range Rover on his farm.

Clarkson captioned the photograph: “Lewis Clarkilton.”

Long-serving Mercedes partners IWC are the latest to have recreated Hamilton’s image with founder Kurt Klaus front and centre of the photograph.

Mr Klaus, who celebrated his 90th birthday last year, started working with IWC at the age of 23.

IWC have been linked to Mercedes-AMG since 2004, with the watch brand becoming the official engineering partner of the Mercedes F1 team in 2013, Hamilton’s first year with the Brackley-based outfit.

The post has received a great reception on social media, with the Mercedes team among the 23,222 accounts to have liked the image at the time of writing.

Referencing Hamilton’s Mercedes exit, one fan commented: “You miss him. Don’t you?”

Another added: “Boss move.”

A report last week claimed that Hamilton’s smart attire for his first day at Maranello was intended as a tribute to the late Mr Ferrari.

Hamilton is said to have been ‘struck by the elegance of Enzo Ferrari’ while studying books and films related to the team’s history, with the 40-year-old inspired to wear a suit and overcoat in a nod to Il Commendatore, who died in 1988.

Mr Ferrari’s only living son Piero recently revealed that Hamilton approached the team a number of times throughout his Mercedes career, with the stars finally aligning for a deal to be done last year.

He told Italian publication Autosprint: “Over the years we have talked and joked, here and there.

“Several times he expressed his desire to race with us, but he was tied to Mercedes and we were tied to our drivers.

“Then came the moment when both Lewis and we saw the opening to start negotiations. And the signing came.”