Inside Lewis Hamilton’s plans to design Ferrari road car inspired by legendary model & with name linked to his F1 legacy
SIR Lewis Hamilton is a man of many talents; F1 champion, environmental activist, fashionista, businessman, philanthropist.
Heck, he was even a character in a Call of Duty video game.
But after his incredibly exciting switch to Scuderia Ferrari this year after 11 years with Mercedes, Hamilton is looking to hopefully add car designer to the mix, too.
Speaking at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month, Hamilton said he aspires to design a Ferrari road car with a manual gearbox that uses the legendary F40 as a “baseline” – and name it the F44.
The 44 is, of course, a reference to his famous racing number.
To the crowd, he said: “One of the things I really want to do is design a Ferrari. I want to design an F44.
“Baseline of an F40, with the actual stick shift. That’s what I’m gonna work on for the next few years.”
It’s an exciting prospect, as the Ferrari F40 is up there among the world’s greatest ever supercars.
First released in 1987 as a successor to the 288 GTO, it was designed – and named – to celebrate Ferrari’s 40th anniversary.
It also holds the honour of being the final Ferrari road car personally approved by Enzo Ferrari before his death in 1988, and at the time of its release was Ferrari’s fastest, most powerful, and most expensive motor.
Car aficionados love the Ferrari F40 for its use of F1 tech – like its tubular steel frame and Kevlar body panels.
What’s more, its doors, bonnet, and boot-lid were crafted from carbon fibre – a practice directly lifted from F1 – that kept it super lightweight.
It’s a driver’s car – with no traction control, ABS, or any other driving aids – while under the bonnet it’s powered by a 2.9-litre V8 engine that produces 471 bhp and a top speed of over 200 mph.
Indeed, it has a reputation for being tricky to drive – with two examples crashing within days of each other in separate incidents in January 2025.
One of them was owned by Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, although he was not driving at the time of the accident.
This particular F40 crashed in the Alps near Monaco after the driver lost control on a straight stretch of road, over-corrected, and hit a barrier.
The other F40 crashed in the UK after flipping over and hitting a lamppost.
At this stage, we can only imagine what Ham’s F44 may look like – and there’s no word that Ferrari will even design such a thing.
The Prancing Horse hasn’t built a three-pedal manual car in years and may not be too keen on that aspect of their driver’s fantasy creation.
But if Ferrari does produce Hamilton’s F44, it would likely incorporate significant F1 technology, much like the original F40.
Hamilton’s start to life in red has been a mixed bag in 2025 so far, as he finished 10th in Australia after briefly leading at the end.
In China, he won the sprint race but was later disqualified from the Grand Prix, along with teammate Charles Leclerc, due to a technical infringement.