The seven-time world champion had the honour of being the first to shake down Ferrari’s new car, the SF-26, which will usher the team into the next regulatory cycle and is tasked with bouncing back from a 2025 campaign that fell short of expectations.

The Briton shared the car with team-mate Charles Leclerc for a handful of laps around Fiorano, ahead of the SF-26’s first proper outing at next week’s Barcelona test. Ferrari has confirmed it will skip the opening day of running.

Taking to social media, Hamilton summed up yesterday’s running as follows: “Every year I look forward to this. Car launch truly never gets old. Big shout to everyone who’s worked hard over the break to get us here.

Carlo Santi has taken on the role of Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer on an interim basis during the test week in Spain, with Ferrari still weighing up a definitive appointment.

An experienced hand, Santi is overseeing operations for now after previously working as Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer. In Barcelona, he is operating closely with Bryan Bozzi, Charles Leclerc’s long-time race engineer.

Meanwhile, there are rumors that Ferrari wants to bring in a former McLarenemployee as Hamilton's eventual race engineer..