Lewis Hamilton won’t be pushing Ferrari to switch to black F1 car livery

Lewis Hamilton says he has no intention to push Ferrari to abandon their iconic scarlet red colours and switch to a black F1 livery when he joins the team.

The seven-time world champion is quitting Mercedes at the end of the year ahead of a blockbuster move to Ferrari in 2025, where he will partner Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes, who have traditionally raced in silver since 1954, famously switched to a black livery as part of a new anti-racism campaign for the 2020 season.

They used the livery through 2020 and 2021 before returning to silver for the 2022 season. In 2023, Mercedes reverted to black in a bid to save weight, while their 2024 challenger features a mix of both colours.

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton was asked if he will request a black F1 livery from Ferrari president John Elkann.

“I haven’t driven a black car for a while, so I probably won’t be pushing for that too early on, but no,” the 39-year-old Briton responded.

Having influenced change during his time at Mercedes, Hamilton confirmed he will continue his diversity push when he joins Ferrari.

“We’ve definitely spoken about impact work and John and the team have a lot of philanthropy work that they do, so we’ll be working very closely with Mission 44 and with the impact stuff that they’re doing,” he explained.

“I think within the sport, we have to continue to do more, but more outside we’ll be doing quite a bit together, so that’s really exciting.”

Earlier this year, Hamilton revealed his diversity push was a key topic during his negotiations with Ferrari.

“Of course, you look at Ferrari, they have a lot of work to do, so I've already made that a priority in speaking with John," Hamilton said in February. "And they're super excited to work on it also."

Hamilton launched Mission44 - a non-profit organisation which aims to improve diversity in F1 and the wider motorsport world - in 2021, investing £20m of his own money into the project.