- Piero Ferrari reflected on first meeting with Lewis Hamilton over a decade ago
- Son of Enzo Ferrari called seven-time world champion ‘a truly pleasant person’
Enzo Ferrari’s son Piero has detailed his relationship with Sir Lewis Hamilton since first meeting the F1 star more than a decade ago.
Hamilton shocked the racing world in February of last year when it was announced he would join the world’s most famous sporting brand for the 2025 season after spending 12 years with Mercedes.
In recent days the 40-year-old has been pictured in his first outing with Ferrari, tasking a SF-23 around the team’s private Fiorano Circuit in northern Italy.
After signing a contract worth £50million-a-year, Hamilton will make his long-awaited debut at the Australian Grand Prix as the 2025 Formula One season gets underway in March.
Ahead of Hamilton’s maiden outing for the Scuderia, Piero Ferrari reflected on his first meeting with the Brit back in 2014 after he purchased the LaFerrari sports car.
‘It’s true. The first time he came to us was when he bought a LaFerrari,’ Piero told Italian outlet Autosprint.
‘He spent quite a bit of time at the factory studying how to customize it. Then in the evening, he came to say goodbye and I asked him if he wanted to stay for dinner with me.
‘He was enthusiastic, we talked about cars but not only that, and I discovered a truly pleasant person, out of the ordinary. We were at the Cavallino restaurant, him with his dog.
‘He came back several times, mainly talking with the people in charge of the commercial side.’
Asked whether Hamilton had taken a look at the racing side of the business during their first meeting Ferrari laughed and insisted he hadn’t.
He did however, reveal he and Hamilton had discussed their love for Ferrari legend and three-time Formula One world champion driver Niki Lauda, and the Briton’s passion for animal welfare.
The 79-year-old also revealed that Hamilton had personally expressed his desire to one day race in Ferrari’s famous red to him on several occasions throughout the years.
He continued: ‘Over the years we have talked and joked here and there.
‘He has expressed to me several times the desire to race with us, but he was tied to commitments with Mercedes and we were equally tied to our drivers.
‘Then the moment came when both Lewis and we saw the opportunity to start negotiations.
‘And the signature came.’
Ferrari also addressed claims that, at 40, Hamilton is past his best as a driver at the highest levels of the sport.
‘He is fit, both physically and mentally,’ Ferrari added. ‘It doesn’t seem to me that age is a problem.
‘He accepted the challenge with enormous enthusiasm, so he is confident in his abilities.’
