Ferrari have tried to maintain a degree of privacy around Lewis Hamilton’s winter tests. But given the hype around the move, it’s proven predictably difficult.

Karun Chandhok called the buzz around Hamilton ‘unreal’, even though the start of the season is still three weeks away. That’s great news for F1’s commercial right holders Liberty Media, but Ferrari must retain focus.

Indeed, Fred Vasseur has tried to control the fanfare around Hamilton at Maranello. He was concerned it could be a distraction.

But Vasseur couldn’t stop thousands of fans attending Hamilton’s first test a month ago. There were, at least, no spectators for his outings in Barcelona – one in the 2023 car, and one in a modified 2024 Ferrari for a Pirelli tyre test.

And that was fortunate, because the superstar signing crashed on the first day of running, spoiling Charles Leclerc’s run plan. Ferrari played down Hamilton’s accident, and they were able to control the narrative because there were very few, if any, external witnesses.

Next week, all 10 teams and 20 drivers will head to Bahrain for the official pre-season test. At that point, they will lose the veil of secrecy, with lap times and onboard footage publicly available.

Ferrari figures urge patience with some ‘shouting miracle’ over Lewis Hamilton lap times

A report from AutoRacer provides details of Wednesday’s SF-25 shakedown at Fiorano. Under the rules, teams are permitted a maximum of 200km running.

Ferrari fans joked that Hamilton took a ‘tea time’ break during his afternoon outing after Leclerc ventured out in the morning. The times haven’t been released, and the team are likely to say that they were testing functionality rather than performance.

But ‘many are taking references’ as they try to work out just how good the new Ferrari is. Some even are ‘shouting miracle’ with regard to Hamilton’s performance.

However, ‘those who know about it’ at Ferrari have called for calm, suggesting that the Tifosi wait until next week. Things will ‘really get serious’ in Bahrain, where drivers typically complete both race simulations and qualifying runs – admittedly with varying degrees of sandbagging.

Was this the gap between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Ferrari test?

For Hamilton, one of the most important objectives before the season starts will be gelling with his engineers. He was at Mercedes for 12 years, but now he faces a potentially jarring reset.

Hamilton says Ferrari’s communication style ‘completely’ differs from Mercedes, but he’s embracing the change. His engineer, Riccardo Adami, previously worked with Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel.

One outlet claims to have got a hold of Ferrari’s lap time data. They say that Leclerc was within hundredths of the all-time Fiorano lap record, which certainly suggests they were pushing.

It’s alleged that Hamilton was eight-tenths slower than Leclerc. If that’s the case, then the real ‘miracle’ would be the Monegasque’s speed, but other observers have clearly collected different information.