The photograph that set a record, staged again
Lewis Hamilton walked into Monza on Thursday morning in an overcoat and a beret, standing beside a Ferrari F40. Anyone who follows the sport recognised the composition immediately.
In January 2025, on his first day as a Ferrari driver, Hamilton posed with an F40 outside the house at Maranello that Enzo Ferrari used as his office. That image became the most-liked Formula 1 post in Instagram history, with 5.7 million likes. Nothing in the sport has come close since.
The difference this time is ownership. The F40 at Monza carries the number 44 on its plate, and it belongs to Hamilton.
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Thirty years in a garage, weeks in Maranello
Hamilton revealed the purchase only days ago. He found the car, in his own description, “covered in dust after being sat in a garage for over thirty years”, and sent it to Maranello, where factory engineers and mechanics spent weeks rebuilding it.
“My very own F40. This is the car of my dreams and has been for as long as I can remember. As a kid I dreamt of having one,” he wrote. “When I joined Ferrari last year I made sure to have one with me on my first day at Maranello. That’s how much it means to me.”
He called the F40 a work of art and thanked everyone involved in the restoration. The car arrived at the circuit under its own power, which for a machine that had spent three decades stationary is its own small achievement.
A weekend heavy with Ferrari history
The timing is not accidental. Ferrari will run a Michael Schumacher tribute livery at Monza, marking 30 years since the German’s first season with the Scuderia in 1996 and 20 since he announced his retirement at this circuit, minutes after winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, now 41, is the only other seven-time world champion in the sport’s history. He took his first Ferrari win at Barcelona-Catalunya in June and sits third in the drivers’ standings, level on points with George Russell, who holds the position ahead of him on two wins to one.
Both trail Kimi Antonelli by 59 points with a maximum of 11 races left. Antonelli starts Sunday from the back of the grid after an engine change at his home race, which hands Hamilton a rare opening to close ground. Charles Leclerc scored Ferrari’s last Monza victory in 2024.
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