Lewis Hamilton reveals amazing detail and restoration story about Ferrari F40

Lewis Hamilton has revealed the incredible restoration project that went into his rare Ferrari F40 that he rocked up to the Formula 1 paddock at the Italian Grand Prix in.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton arrived in style to Thursday’s media day at Monza by driving his newly-acquired Ferrari F40 to the track ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. 

Hamilton shared the remarkable story behind his journey to finally get his hands on his “dream car”, which he said had been left untouched for years. 

“It's a dream car of mine, so I've been looking for one for a while,” Hamilton explained. “I wanted one with low mileage, I wanted one with a story and lots have come up in auction over the past couple of years. Some with low mileage, but just not particularly special, or maybe the paint's been redone or something like that. 

“So I wanted to find the most authentic one, and managed to come across this one. The owner had bought it, drove it from Maranello to his home 69 kilometers and then parked it and never started it again. The passenger door had never been opened. It just had this cover on it and all this dust.

“Then the decision was kind of, do you keep it as an art piece, keep it all dusty? Or do you have them clean it up? So that took me a while to decide. Then I had it redone, because I wanted to drive it in. 

“I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that none of the Ferrari drivers in history have ever arrived in the coolest cars that they have. These iconic ones, the GTO, or the F40. I was like, it has to be done.”

Hamilton went on to share an amazing detail about his unique F40.

“What was also crazy is when they were taking the car apart to check it, firstly it’s stood the test of time so everything was still working. Hardly anything had to be changed,” Hamilton added. 

“When they took the engine out, they found out the engine's number 44. It's got stamped on the engine number 44, which I couldn't believe. I was like, ‘you've got to be lying'. So it feels very much fate. 

“I thought it was a real opportunity to kind of highlight the history of Ferrari in their home country at their race. When am I ever going to get to do that again? So.” 

Asked how important is it for him to embrace Ferrari’s heritage beyond racing, Hamilton replied: “For me personally, I take it serious. It's such a phenomenal experience to be in amongst this brand and to see how it transcends the sport, and how it's touched people all over the world. The colour and the logo, and these iconic cars.

“I showed one of one of the members up high the F40 I drove in Japan and they're like, ‘Oh, maybe next year you can use the Luce’, and I was like, it's not the same as the F40’. I think the nostalgia, the iconic curves and lines that they used to build these cars back in the day, there's just nothing quite like it. 

“Obviously you’ve got the F80, which is pretty cool, or the F50, but this one for me, I just remember as a kid, I had all these cars lined up, and the red car, the F40, was the one. 

“But it was so far from my thoughts that I'd ever have a chance to acquire one of them. I think arriving at the race weekends, getting to race and wear red is one thing, but outside of the sport, there's so much more to do within fashion and I love getting creative and coming up with concepts that most people don’t, at least within my team.

"The first image we did at Ferrari the first year, that was my concept, my creation and it was the same this weekend. I had that idea. I was like, ‘I want to turn up in this style, in this suit, in this way’, to pay homage to the sport, but also just get that moment, because it's never going to come again.”