Hamilton issues official statement over first Ferrari race after crash scare

Lewis Hamilton has spoken out about his upcoming first Formula 1 race as a Ferrari driver, after his second test with the team.

The seven-time world champion announced his move to the Scuderia all the way back in February of last year, but didn't step foot in one of the iconic red cars until this January.

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Hamilton's first drive in the 2023 SF-23 car – drivers can't currently test in the 2024 or 2025 editions – came last week at the team's iconic testing track at Maranello, in Italy.

That test went smoothly enough, with a number of adoring fans turning out for a first glimpse of the British star in his red racesuit, but this week's test in Barcelona was a little more trying.

The official Ferrari site are currently running a sale with up to 30 per cent off their existing F1 merchandise ahead of Hamilton’s arrival.

What did Lewis Hamilton say about his debut?

This week's test in Barcelona was behind closed doors, meaning that footage of Hamilton's time on track hasn't been released. That means that nobody knows exactly how he crashed the Ferrari at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, only that he did.

While Hamilton himself wasn't harmed by the accident, the car needed retrieving by the team and taking back to the garage for repairs.

It's not the first time Hamilton's pranged a new team's car in the pre-season though, with Sky Sports' Craig Slater noting: "He did have a similar type of crash on his very first outing pre-season with Mercedes when he joined them and that association didn’t work out too badly."

Taking to Instagram after the week's testing concluded, Hamilton posted a picture of himself staring out from the pit wall in Ferrari gear with a simple caption: "First race can’t come soon enough."

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