FORMULA ONE 2025.

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From 1/1/2025 Lewis Hamilton became a Ferrari driver.

The Ferrari media team released a very clever post.

Note the time it was posted. 16.44. 16  is Charles Leclerc's race number and 44 is Lewis Hamiltons number. (they are now team mates). Interesting to note that Mercedes have lost just under a million followers and Ferrari have gained over a million.

With all his farewell commitments to Mercedes, Lewis has not tested in last years Ferrari. (All new drivers did a test run in Abu Dhabi.) It's understood, he will be testing in Marinello, Italy, later this month.

A lot to learn. New car, new steering wheel, new team, new race engineer and new language.

Personally, I'm not expecting him to do that well initially. Only time will tell.

* F1 live at the O2 Arena London. February

* Pre- Season Testing in Bahrain 26th-28th February.

* 1st Race - Australia Friday March 14th-Sunday 16th March.

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Lewis Hamilton arriving at Ferrari HQ in Maranello Italy today.

A load of fans were queuing to meet him.

Down to F1 work tomorrow. A few test drives in Ferrari's 2024 car and some sim racing.

Lewis will also meet his team and new race engineer (Riccardo Adami.)

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News today:

Lewis Hamilton is to be re-united with his physiotherapist/dietitian Angela Cullen, who worked with him through his Mercedes years from 2016 until 2023.

No reason given as to why she left in 2023. It appears that key personnel may be unable to work for another F1 team  for a year. Angela worked in Indycar for a year.

Now she will be joining Hamilton's Project 44 team and 'working in the background at Ferrari as a team  physio, primarily with Lewis.

Project 44 is a team of trusted people handpicked by LH to assist with his transistion to Ferrari.

HERE and HERE 

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Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari for his first drive today.

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Oh dear Lewis! Pushing to the limits apparently.

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Johnny Herbert made some negative comments about Verstappen's style of driving apparently. Now we have this:

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Last night at the O2 arena we saw F1/75. It was to celebrate 75 years of Formula 1. All 20 drivers were present as well as 10 team principals. F1 commentators, Stephan Domenicali (CEO Formula 1) and various members of the public who had paid £110 for the privilege of being there.

The idea was to introduce the 2025 cars, the drivers of each team and the team principals.

Firstly the 2025 cars were NOT at the show, they were packed up and enroute for 3 days of testing in Bahrain 

next week.

So the 24 cars were presented with their new liveries.

Sadly the MC for the night was Jack Whitehall, who was NOT in the slightest bit funny and  quite cringe at times.

For some strange reason FOM decided we needed 4 musical acts last night. From the US. Kane Brown and DJ Mgk (a rapper and DJ) Final act was Take That.

However Brian Tyler who composed the iconic  F1 theme tune, orchestrated another musical masterpiece

"We Are Dreaming" which was absolutely right for this celebration.

Bearing in mind the audience were from all over the world, there was a lot of booing and only one I agreed with. (the FIA)

Christian Horner was booed when he stepped on the stage to speak, same with Max Verstappen. So Max didn't speak at all. Liam Lawson, From NZ) who is Max's new team mate did say he was pleased to be here and he was cheered. There was no need for that booing. Max is a great driver (When he's not crashing  into his opponents)😂

The biggest boo was the mention of the FIA, the guys who hand out penalties, decide on safety cars and whether to drop a red flag with a nasty crash. They were booed due to the fact they are inconsistent with penalties

The biggest cheer of the night went to Lewis Hamilton.

Musical acts and Jack Whitehall aside, it was a great show. A lot of technical wizardry was involved showing 75 years of racing, getting the cars on and off the enormous catwalk and talking to the drivers and team principals.

Motorsport have rated the liveries from 1-10

Car Livery Rating 

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BAHRAIN TESTING

This week and next there will be 3 days of testing in Bahrain.

The sessions are divided into morning and afternoon.

This morning we have on track:

Hamilton : Ferrari

Alonso : Aston Martin

Albon : Williams

Lawson : Red Bull

Doohan : Alpine

Tsunado : Racing Bull

Hulkenberg : Kick Sauber

Bearman : Haas

Antonelli : Mercedes

Piastri. : McLaren

It's important to note absolutely nothing can be read into testing times. Some cars are on track with front rakes attached to check the flexibility of the wings. Some are on hard tyres. others are are medium. Etc  etc.

However, Hamilton is currently top of the leaderboard. 😂

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Testing Results AM

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Session red flagged after a power cut which affected all the technical equipment in the pits.

The drivers from the PM session were given an extra hour of testing.

The final results from Day 1 :

Williams looking good. Sainz in 5th 😂