Piero Ferrari, the son of legendary team founder Enzo Ferrari, has rejected fears that Lewis Hamilton has joined the Scuderia too late in his F1 career.

It comes after Hamilton was slower than new team-mate Charles Leclerc in a Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona earlier this week.

Lewis Hamilton 1.7 seconds slower than Charles Leclerc in F1 2025 test

Hamilton is gearing up for his first season as a Ferrari driver, having joined the Italian team from Mercedes on a multi-year contract ahead of the F1 2025 season.

After receiving a warm reception at the team’s Maranello factory and Fiorano test track last month, Hamilton suffered a setback last week when he crashed heavily in a TPC [Testing of Previous Car] test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The extent of the damage and lengthy repairs required meant Leclerc was unable to take to the track at all last Wednesday.

Ferrari were back at the Spanish Grand Prix venue this week to participate in a Pirelli tyre test, with the Scuderia and McLaren both providing mule cars to assist the Italian manufacturer’s development of the new tyres for the F1 2026 season.

Although the running was in no way representative, Pirelli’s move to publish fastest lap times at the end of each test day allowed for a first comparison of lap times between Hamilton and Leclerc in identical machinery.

Hamilton edged the first day of running in Barcelona, with his fastest lap of 1:15.930 quicker than Leclerc by 0.130 seconds as both trailed Lando Norris, behind the wheel of a modified version of McLaren’s 2023 car.

Leclerc hit back the following day to go 1.788 seconds quicker than his illustrious team-mate.

Pirelli stressed that the published lap times carried ‘no real significance given the different work programmes carried out’ by Ferrari and McLaren in Barcelona.

Hamilton has joined Ferrari after being heavily beaten by Mercedes team-mate George Russell in qualifying conditions in F1 2024, with the seven-time World Champion admitting at the penultimate race in Qatar that he is “not fast anymore.”

Mr Ferrari revealed last month that Hamilton frequently expressed a desire to join the Scuderia over the course of his Mercedes career.

And the 79-year-old has dismissed concerns that Hamilton’s switch has come too late in his career, insisting that the driver’s advanced age will not be “a problem” at Ferrari.

Put to him that it is “a bit late” for Hamilton to join Ferrari having recently turned 40, Mr Ferrari said: ‘True, but he is intact.

“He is fit, both physically and mentally. I don’t see age as a problem.

“He accepted the challenge with enormous enthusiasm and he is confident of his chances.”

Hamilton is believed to be under pressure to make a strong start to his Ferrari career amid suggestions that team principal Fred Vasseur could impose team orders after the first few races of the new season to enhance their F1 2025 title hopes.

A report from Italy last week claimed that the first group of races ‘could already be decisive in establishing a new hierarchical order’ inside Ferrari.

The team are expected to enter the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a ‘two-pronged attack’ with Hamilton and Leclerc afforded equal treatment.

However, Vasseur is thought to be prepared to throw the team’s full support behind one of Hamilton or Leclerc if one driver establishes a clear advantage early on.

Martin Brundle, the former Formula 1 racer now working as a Sky F1 television pundit, has warned that Ferrari will expect Hamilton to be fully up to speed by the third race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on April 6, at the latest.

Ferrari are poised to go all in their bid to claim a first World Championship of any kind since 2008, with Vasseur recently confirming that the SF-25 car will be “completely new” for the final year of the current regulations.

This season is expected to be the most competitive for some time after Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and eventual champions McLaren all claimed multiple victories in F1 2024, with it highly unusual for a team to pursue a new development path for the final season of a rules cycle.

Ferrari are widely expected to adopt a new pullrod front suspension layout – favoured by Red Bull and McLaren – with the SF-25, with the gearbox and sidepods also set to be reworked.

Development of the SF-25 has been led by former Mercedes engineer Loic Serra, who effectively replaced Aston Martin-bound Enrico Cardile as Ferrari technical director upon starting work at Maranello last October.

Serra is believed to be particularly close to Hamilton, having worked alongside the British driver during the most successful years of his F1 career.

The French engineer is also believed to have shared Hamilton’s reservations over the divisive zero-pod concept pursued by Mercedes across 2022/23.

Reports from recent test sessions have indicated that Hamilton has experienced teething troubles adapting to the Brembo brakes used by Ferrari, with the team carrying out ‘a lot of work’ to make tweaks to the pedals between the Fiorano and Barcelona tests.

Mercedes, where Hamilton spent the previous 12 seasons of his career between 2013 and 2024, are believed to use braking materials produced by Brembo competitors Carbon Industrie.