It’s no secret that Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red overalls has not gone well, which, frankly, was inevitable. If the last 20 years have shown us anything, it’s that former F1 champions do not win at Ferrari. That said, we may still get a sweet road car out of it—or, exactly one designed by Lewis, for Lewis. The seven-time champ revealed this week ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that he has sold all of his cars, but is still holding out for a specific one with a Prancing Horse badge.
The sale of Hamilton’s car collection comes after the driver sold his private jet about six years ago to reduce his carbon footprint. Motorsport.com published a roster of all of the cars Hamilton is believed to have owned over the years, as no single list exists, and as you’d imagine, it consists of many rare and desirable Mercedes models, along with a few Ferraris and, notably, a McLaren F1. Some of the standouts include the custom Pagani Zonda 760 LH, made just for him; the AMG Project One; a Mercedes G63 six-wheeler; two LaFerraris, and a Shelby Cobra and original GT500 in Eleanor’s image.
Lots of good stuff there, to be sure. But none of it is in Hamilton’s care anymore. Naturally, it seems he’d make one or two exceptions for his employer’s products.
“I don’t have any cars anymore,” Hamilton said during an interview, when asked if he was interested in purchasing an F80. “I don’t have any cars, so I got rid of all my cars. I’m more into art nowadays. If I was going to get a car, it would be the F40. But that’s a nice piece of art.”
Look—if you had to own one car, the F40 would be a pretty good choice. Hamilton’s fascination with Enzo Ferrari’s last work is well documented, especially after he said back in March that he’d like to create a modern version of it, complete with a stickshift, that he nicknamed “F44” after his racing number.
Maranello is apparently open to the prospect, as the automaker’s chief product development officer told MotorTrend earlier this year that a manual-equipped car is “something that could be in the future.” The last Ferrari with a manual was the California, which still offered three pedals as an option in 2012.
The slightly strange thing about all of this is that Hamilton’s dream of F40 ownership seems like a very attainable one, and not just because he’s loaded. It’s the least rare of all of Ferrari’s halo cars, dating back to the 288 GTO. The company built over 1,300 examples of the winged beauty—about 1,000 more than the F50, which is not as fondly recalled by fans. Now, if he wanted a 288 GTO Evoluzione, then he might have a little more trouble.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
