Lewis Hamilton completed his first day of testing as a Ferrari driver on Wednesday morning, with his big track debut at Fiorano.

The first day of the rest of his life.  Lewis Hamilton  may have the most impressive track record in the history of F1 and a career in the premier discipline that is already longer than most of his contemporaries, but the materialization of the meeting between the Briton and  Ferrari  this Wednesday did not fail to arouse strong interest in the small world of motor sports.

The interest in his first laps on the Fiorano circuit, owned by Ferrari, was just as local, with hundreds of tifosi gathered along the fences to watch this necessarily special run. In the fog and cold of the morning, it was at 9:16 am – the exact time having been given by the team itself – that the SF-23 bearing the number 44 and driven by a Hamilton who was once again wearing a yellow helmet took to the track, to the cheers of the public greeted with a wave by the seven-time world champion. An installation lap aimed at checking the proper functioning of the single-seater, completed on rain tires, at the end of which he returned to the pits.

A few minutes later, Hamilton was given the green light to complete the first of his stints, on demonstration slick tyres as required by the regulations, punctuated by simulated starts, before the rain that had been threatening made its appearance shortly before noon, ending up pouring down once midday had passed, thus stopping the running and ending his day. The Briton completed a total of around thirty laps, or around 90 km. The afternoon was then devoted to  Charles Leclerc ‘s running  at the wheel of the same 2023 Ferrari, in wet conditions.

As the rain had started and his first day of track activity ended there, the now former  Mercedes driver  took the opportunity to walk towards the fans who had come in large numbers to see him and greet them. He who was a major rival for the Scuderia throughout his career is now arousing overwhelming enthusiasm among Ferrari fans, to the point of saturating the hotels in the region and making the local authorities fear a lack of security around the site.