Lewis Hamilton Wants To Design A Manual Ferrari Road Car

We know Lewis Hamilton loves a Ferrari. Over the years, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion has owned some of the finest road cars to ever wear a prancing horse – a 599 GTO, SA Aperta and a LaFerrari just to name a few.

Given he now holds the keys to one of its F1 seats, we’re only assuming he’ll be taking advantage of the company car scheme to add to that pretty hefty catalogue. He may even take up one of the biggest perks of the job – designing his very own.

Speaking with Motorsport.com, the Brit said: “One of the things I really want to do is design a Ferrari”, and has even named it already, “I want to do an F44.”

If he’s allowed to do so, Hamilton was the F44 to be a spiritual successor to the Ferrari F40: “Baseline of an F40, with the actual stick shift. That’s what I’m gonna work on for the next few years.” Maybe we’ll get a sequel to that iconic debut Ferrari image to go with it.

It’s unclear at this stage if Hamilton is wishfully thinking or if a genuine LH44-branded F40 is on the cards, however, Top Gear reported late last year that Maranello execs had mulled the idea over. Presumably, the Lamborghini Countach of 2022 may have served as some inspiration for that car.

We can only speculate for now what a potential Ferrari F44 could be powered by. If Hamilton is really keen on replicating the F40, it’d need some form of twin-turbocharged V8.

Right now, Ferrari only produces one car with such an engine. Production recently F154-powered Roma coupe and SF90. The Roma Spider lives on for the time being, but once that bows out, it’ll likely spell the end of that engine.

That could potentially serve as a base, albeit it would need to be put back into limited production.

On the same lines, Ferrari hasn’t offered a manual car since the first-generation California. Not exactly the greatest ending for the row-your-own Prancing Horse…

So, we’d expect development costs to be astronomical. Then again, we’re sure there’s more than enough billionaires willing to part with a slice of their fortunes for a Lewis Hamilton-developed, signed and sealed Ferrari road car. Especially if his time in the scarlet red cars leads to an eighth F1 title…