Ferrari have been going to extreme lengths to ‘erase’ Lewis Hamilton’s memory during his first simulator sessions at Maranello, it has been claimed.

Hamilton made his first public appearances as a Ferrari driver earlier this week, almost a year after his shock move from Mercedes for the F1 2025 season was announced.

Ferrari aiming to ‘rough out’ Lewis Hamilton with simulator work at Maranello

After visiting the team’s Maranello factory on Monday, Hamilton took to the track for the first time as a Ferrari driver at the Fiorano test circuit on Wednesday.

After completing around 30 laps behind the wheel of the team’s 2023 car, Hamilton took time to greet members of the Tifosi, Ferrari’s hardcore fanbase, who had flocked to Fiorano to witness the test.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari on a multi-year contract is only the second team switch of his illustrious F1 career, with his only previous transfer occurring in 2013 when he swapped McLaren for Mercedes.

The British driver cemented his place in F1 history over the course of 12 seasons at Mercedes, equalling Michael Schumacher’s long-standing record of seven World Championships in 2020 before becoming the first man to surpass 100 race wins and pole positions the following year.

Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes came after he suffered two winless seasons across 2022/23. He returned to the top step of the podium last year, claiming victories in Britain and Belgium.

The 40-year-old’s first week at Ferrari has seen Hamilton drive the team’s simulator for the first time, allowing the seven-time World Champion to adjust to life at his new team in a virtual environment before taking to the track for real.

And it has emerged that Ferrari have gone to extreme lengths in order to wipe Hamilton’s muscle memory from his Mercedes career and accelerate his adaptation to his new team.

A report by respected Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport has claimed that Hamilton has been driving the end-of-season specification of Ferrari’s 2024 car during his early simulator work.

However, the team are said to have ‘deliberately’ tweaked intricate details such as suspension calibrations, engine maps and load level ‘very far apart’ in an attempt to ‘erase’ Hamilton’s ‘sensory memory’ of the Mercedes simulator.

It is hoped that this will ‘mentally eliminate the spurious effects and sensations that are provided by hydraulic actuators controlled by profoundly different mathematical models’, with Ferrari’s simulator said to be more modern than the Mercedes version in Brackley.

Ferrari are reported to be aiming to ‘rough out Hamilton’s feeling for this sophisticated tool’.

The report adds that a simulated version of Ferrari’s 2025 chassis – codenamed Project 677 – already exists with Hamilton able to make a ‘direct comparison’ between the 2024 and 2025 cars ahead of the launch of Project 677 on February 19.

Ferrari are said to be holding briefings with Hamilton before and after each run in the simulator for feedback purposes, as well as to gain a clearer understanding of the new signing’s preferences in terms of setup and vehicle dynamics.

Hamilton’s adjustment to life at Ferrari is likely to be eased by a number of familiar faces.

Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, oversaw Hamilton’s title-winning GP2 season in 2006 as the boss of the ART Grand Prix team, with Hamilton’s performances rewarded with a McLaren F1 seat in 2007.

Hamilton is known to have a close relationship with Ferrari president John Elkann, with the driver also reunited with popular physiotherapist Angela Cullen at his new team.

Ferrari’s deputy team principal Jerome d’Ambrosio spent a brief spell at Mercedes across 2023/24 before joining Ferrari last year, with the former Marussia and Lotus-Renault driver starting work at Maranello on the same day as chassis technical director Loic Serra last October.

Serra, who is leading development of Project 677, also arrived from Mercedes and is understood to be close to Hamilton having shared the driver’s doubts over the zero-pod design concept pursued by the Brackley-based team in 2022/23.

Reports earlier this month claimed that Serra’s influence has resulted in Ferrari moving the cockpit of their car further back for 2025.

Cockpit positioning proved a major irritation for Hamilton during his penultimate season with Mercedes in 2023, with the seven-time World Champion complaining that he was sat too close to the front wheels.

Despite the pre-existing relationship between Hamilton and Serra, it is unclear if the former has had any direct influence on the decision to adjust the seating position for 2025.

A move to a pullrod front suspension is expected to be the biggest visible change on Project 677, with Ferrari following in the footsteps of rivals McLaren and Red Bull.

Reports last year claimed that the move to a pullrod front suspension has been facilitated by Hamilton’s arrival, with his driving style more closely aligned to new team-mate Charles Leclerc than predecessor Carlos Sainz.

A pullrod front is understood to bring a significant advantage in the ground-effect era, increasing airflow to the car’s complex underbody, which generates a significant proportion of overall downforce under the current rules.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com earlier this week, however, team principal Ayao Komatsu confirmed that Ferrari customers Haas will not be adopting a pullrod front suspension for F1 2025.

Despite a close technical partnership with Ferrari, Haas have opted to stick with their existing pushrod design for the final year of the current regulations having enjoyed their most productive season since 2018 in 2024.

Hamilton’s packed winter schedule is set to take him to Barcelona for a second private test next week before he and Leclerc present Ferrari’s new livery at F1’s first-ever collective season-launch event in London on February 18.

Project 677 will be officially launched the following day, with Hamilton and Leclerc expected to drive the new car in a brief shakedown – likely to take place at Fiorano – before an official three-day test is held in Bahrain across February 26-28.

Hamilton and Leclerc will then return to Italy to appear in a special event organised by Ferrari and new major sponsor Unicredit in early March.

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix will take place on March 16.