He joins Ferrari on the eve of his 40th birthday on 7 January as team-mate to Charles Leclerc in what many in the sport regard as the strongest driver line-up on the grid.

Ferrari finished 2024 on a high, narrowly missing out on beating McLaren to the constructors’ championship.

Leclerc scored more points than any driver – and Ferrari more than any rival team – from the Dutch Grand Prix, the race after the sport’s summer break, to the end of the season.

Hamilton has a short but intense period to adapt to his new team before the start of the season in Melbourne, Australia on 14-16 March.

Ferrari have given few details of their plans for Hamilton, but he will visit the factory, drive the simulator, and do some days in a 2023 car, activities aimed at getting used to the new team and the way the car is operated.

The 2025 Ferrari will be launched on 19 February, one day after F1’s first official season launch at the O2 in London.

The official pre-season test days will be on 26-28 February in Bahrain, with Hamilton and Leclerc dividing their time in the new car equally.

Team principal Frederic Vasseur said at Ferrari’s official Christmas lunch last month that Hamilton’s first six weeks with the team were “critical”.

“It is not easy but he is coming with his own experience,” Vasseur said. “But he is not the rookie of the year, I am not worried at all about this. It is also the continuity of the previous regulations so we have some reference. I am not worried but it is true it is a challenge.”

Vasseur expects 2025 to be a close battle for the championship between Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes.