Lewis Hamilton’s ambitions for his time at Ferrari extend past the boundaries of the racetrack.
The British driver, who’s in his first season with Formula 1’s winningest team, says he’d like to try his hand at designing a road car, according to Motorsport.com. Specifically, he wants to help create a modern-day tribute to the legendary F40.
This isn’t the first time Hamilton has expressed an interest in automotive design. In 2019, while he was still with Mercedes-AMG Petronas, the seven-time F1 champion said he’d like to participate in developing a special edition of the automaker’s racing-inspired One hypercar. That vehicle never came to fruition, but it would seem that Hamilton still wants to make such a project happen.
“One of the things I really want to do is I want to design a Ferrari. I want to do an F44,” he told the website while down under for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. “Baseline of an F40, with the actual stick shift. That’s what I’m gonna work on for the next few years.”
It’s no surprise to see Hamilton mention the F40 as an inspiration for the project, which would take its name from his racing number. The marque’s second halo model, which enthusiasts may have spied in the background of the driver’s first official Ferrari photo, isn’t just one of the great Prancing Horses, it’s one of the greatest sports cars of all time (we recently ranked it second in our countdown of the top 50).
The F40 was the last car that Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari signed off on before his death in 1988. The successor to the 288 GTO made its debut one year prior, just in time for the brand’s 40th anniversary. Its bold Pininfarina-designed, Scaglietti-crafted body made it one of the defining poster cars of its era, but what really separated the vehicle from its peers was the 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 under its rear clamshell. The racing-inspired mill—the car was originally intended to compete in the Group B rally category—pumped out 478 hp, enough to push the vehicle to 199 mph. Ferrari originally intended to build just 400 examples of the car, but it was so popular that 1,315 examples would roll off the line before production ended in 1991.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard about a possible F40 revival. Last fall, months before Hamilton’s quotes were published, Top Gear reported that Ferrari was considering resurrecting the nameplate as an ultra-exclusive Icona Series model. Only time will tell, but maybe that car and the F44 end up being one and the same.
