Two days after the F1 season conclusion in Abu Dhabi next weekend, a number of drivers changing teams for 2025 will get a head start in the post-race test.
Williams has already confirmed Carlos Sainz will test for them in Abu Dhabi, and others making swaps are expected to do the same. It may only be a day in a car that’ll never be raced again, but it’s still a chance to get to know a new team’s people and how they work.
So why won’t Lewis Hamilton be doing the same with Ferrari?
It’s the biggest move in F1 history as the sport’s most successful driver links up with the sport’s most successful team. But Hamilton won’t don the famed red overalls until early next year.
In Qatar on Thursday, Hamilton said that while Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was eager for it to happen, he always felt in “two minds” about doing the test.
💬 “Driving the red car for the first time in Abu Dhabi does not excite me. In a perfect world, you’d get to drive it and not be seen and do the first rollout next year.”
Besides the lack of romanticism involved with the post-season test, there was also the contractual element: Hamilton remains a Mercedes man until the end of the year, and the team has a farewell tour planned for him with a number of its partners. Hamilton added:
💬 “When I did raise it, obviously with Toto (Wolff), they had all these plans that I’ve got to go and see some of the sponsors and say some farewells.
“So I don’t think it was ever going to actually be allowed, even if I’d asked to have done it, because I’m contracted to the team until December 31, and that’s totally fine.
“But it doesn’t bother me, because I wasn’t going to do the test. I told Fred that’s not what I wanted to do.”