Ferrari are set to go “bold” with the livery of the Project 677 car for Lewis Hamilton’s first season with the team in F1 2025, it has been claimed.

But the team are to stop short of following in the footsteps of Mercedes, who swapped to a black livery from 2020 in support of Hamilton‘s off-track campaigning.

Ferrari to run ‘more intense’ livery for Lewis Hamilton’s first season?

Hamilton is gearing up for his first season as a Ferrari driver, having announced almost a year ago that he would join the Scuderia from Mercedes on a multi-year contract from F1 2025.

Mercedes switched from their traditional silver to a black colour scheme ahead of the delayed 2020 season in support of Hamilton’s campaigning, interchanging between the two across his final five years with the team.

Hamilton played down concerns last year that he would submit a request to president John Elkann for Ferrari to part with their iconic red livery, insisting that he would not be insistent on a black Ferrari for F1 2025.

He told reporters at the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix: “I haven’t driven a black car for a while, so I probably won’t be pushing for that too early on, but no.

“We’ve definitely spoken about impact work and John and the team have a lot of philanthropy work that they do, so we’ll be working very closely with [charity] Mission 44 and with the impact stuff that they’re doing.”

A report by respected Italian publication Auto Racer has claimed that Ferrari’s F1 2025 car, codenamed Project 677, will feature a “bold” new livery with a “more intense” shade of red planned.

The new livery is said to be less extreme than the one-off burgundy livery used by Ferrari at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix in Mugello, where the team celebrated their 1,000th F1 race.

Ferrari have often experimented with a darker shade of red over the last two decades, occasionally running a metallic colour in 2007/08 when Hamilton was starting his F1 career with McLaren.

An element of the Mugello 2020 livery was retained for the team’s 2021 car, which was noticeably darker at the rear of the chassis. Ferrari last ran a darker colour scheme on the F1-75 car of 2022.

The report adds that weight saving should be a lesser concern for teams when it comes to livery design, with an increase in the minimum weight of the cars and the introduction of a new cooling kit for drivers, which has been made mandatory for races held in extreme heat.

It is hoped that these changes will lead to greater creativity regarding car liveries, with exposed-carbon black colour schemes becoming commonplace under the ground-effect era in place since 2022.

The new Ferrari livery is expected to debut on a showcar at F1’s first-ever season-launch event, attended by all 10 teams and 20 drivers, in London on February 18.

Ferrari confirmed last month that Project 677 will be officially launched on February 19, with Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc expected to receive their first taste of the new car in a shakedown run on the same day.

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, recently confirmed that a black element will remain on the new W16 for F1 2025 in a nod to Hamilton’s lasting imprint on the team.

He told Channel 4: “He’s a global phenomenon.

“For sure, he played a role in positioning the Mercedes brand a little bit more edgy, a little bit more contemporary and extravagant.

“But then the impact he had on the team in terms of diversity — we have a large part of our population today from under-represented groups, and it’s going to make us strong, because it’s different cultures, different perceptions and perspectives.

“He made us kneel when we needed to do it, he helped us to do the car black and it’s going to stay black.

“We’re not bailing out of there.”

Development of Ferrari’s Project 677, which is said to have passed the mandatory FIA crash tests before Christmas, is being led by former Mercedes engineer Loic Serra.

Serra is believed to be particularly close to Hamilton, having shared the seven-time World Champion’s doubts over the failed zero-pod design concept pursued by Mercedes under former technical director Mike Elliott across 2022/23.

Reports earlier this month claimed that Ferrari have moved the cockpit of their car further back for F1 2025 in a potential boost to Hamilton.

Cockpit positioning proved to be a major irritation for Hamilton during his penultimate season with Mercedes in 2023, when he complained of being seated too close to the front wheels.

It is unclear if Hamilton has had any direct influence on the decision to adjust the cockpit of the Ferrari for F1 2025.

The position of the cockpit is the latest design detail related to Project 677 to have emerged since last summer, with Ferrari widely expected to return to a pullrod rear suspension for the first time since 2015.

A revised wheelbase appears to be consistent with reports of a new cockpit position for F1 2025, with a shorter gearbox also on area of focus for Ferrari.

All changes are thought to be geared towards an improved weight distribution to assist tyre management, which proved a strength for Ferrari during the F1 2024 season as the finished just 14 points short of champions McLaren in the Constructors’ standings.

Reports last week claimed Hamilton will have four days of TPC (Testing of Previous Car) running this month, with a so-called ‘wake-up’ test at Fiorano set to be followed by two days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the home of F1’s Spanish Grand Prix.