Damien Smith

Finally, the wait is over. More than a year since he pledged himself to Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton will make his debut for the Scuderia this Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix (see p52). Might he win first time out? If he does, he will join Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Musso, Giancarlo Baghetti, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso in Maranello’s perfect-start club. Stranger things have happened.

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What an exciting time to be a Ferrari fan. Beyond Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in F1, the Prancing Horse has got 2025 off to flier in sports car racing, with a resounding one-two-three in the World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar. In the wake of its back-to-back victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours and the satellite AF Corse operation’s win in Texas last year, success at the Qatar 1812km was the factory team’s first with the 499P away from ‘the big one’.

Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina led the podium lock-out, with the yellow AF Corse car finishing ahead of the other scarlet works entry. The trio were separated by less than three seconds at the end of the 10-hour race, after a dominant performance. While a Le Mans hat-trick is a clear and obvious ambition, Ferrari really wants a world championship to complete the set and its campaign to achieve that sure has begun on the right hoof.

YELLOW ALERT

The Ferrari order was decided only in the final round of pit stops at Lusail. Fuoco held out for longer, meaning less fuel and a shorter stop, and he emerged with a narrow lead over Robert Kubica in the AF Corse car.