Lewis Hamilton Restores His Dream Ferrari F40
Lewis Hamilton has won just about everything there is to win in a Formula 1 car. Now he’s helping to bring a very different Ferrari back to life.
Not an F1 machine. An F40.
At Maranello, the seven-time world champion is working with Ferrari’s own engineers on a deeply personal project: restoring what he calls “my very own F40”, the car he has idolised since childhood and finally brought under his ownership.
A poster on the wall, now in the workshop
Only 1,311 Ferrari F40s were built between 1987 and 1993. Mid‑engine, rear‑wheel drive, engineered by Nicola Materazzi and styled by Pininfarina, it became a road‑going icon with a race‑bred soul. A competition version followed from 1994 to 1996, but it’s the road car that still sits at the top of the pedestal for collectors and purists.
Hamilton has long been one of its loudest admirers. Over the years he has spoken often of his love for the F40’s rawness and drama, a throwback to a wilder era. While many modern drivers are regularly seen cruising around in the latest supercars, Hamilton has stepped away from that lifestyle in recent seasons. The F40, though, is different. It still tugs at him.
When he arrived at Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season, cameras picked him out at Maranello with an F40 by his side, a symbolic pairing of the brand’s past and its new star. Earlier this year, he was spotted driving one through the streets of Japan during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, the red wedge cutting through modern traffic like a time capsule on turbochargers.
Now the relationship has gone a step further.
From dusty garage to Ferrari’s heart
Hamilton revealed that he had tracked down an F40 that had been left standing in a garage for more than three decades, buried under dust. For most people, that would be a heartbreaking sight. For him, it was an invitation.
“These cars are works of art and incredibly rare,” he said, explaining why he felt compelled to act when he found the neglected example. He had the car transported to Maranello, straight into the hands of the factory’s master engineers and mechanics, and launched a full restoration.
They spent weeks reviving it, stripping away the years, bringing the twin‑turbo legend back to life piece by painstaking piece. This wasn’t a casual vanity project; it was a driver and a marque meeting at the intersection of shared history and personal obsession.
Hamilton framed it in simple, emotional terms. The F40, he said, is “the car of my dreams and has been for as long as I can remember.” As a kid, it was the fantasy. As a Ferrari driver, it became a promise to himself. On his first day at Maranello, he made sure an F40 was with him. That’s how much it meant.
A dream realised, and a hint of more to come
Once the restoration work reached its climax, Hamilton went public, showing the world the once‑dusty F40 and calling it “my very own F40”. He thanked the Ferrari staff who had poured their expertise into the project, describing it as “truly…a dream come true”.
For a driver whose life has been defined by cutting‑edge technology, the choice of a 1980s analogue monster says plenty. The F40 is loud, unforgiving, mechanical. No frills, no filters. In many ways, it’s the opposite of the ultra‑refined machinery he races on Sundays.
That contrast is exactly the point. This is Hamilton stepping into Ferrari’s mythology not just through an F1 contract, but through one of the most revered road cars the company has ever built.
He has promised to share more of the journey. The car is back, the dust is gone, and the story of Lewis Hamilton and his dream F40 is only just getting started.
