Lewis Hamilton blocked from more Ferrari testing as new 'Verstappen rule' bites

Lewis Hamilton’s TPC outings have concluded for F1 2025 after the new Ferrari driver hit the maximum allocation of four days as he familiarised himself with the team’s procedures in an SF-23.

Hamilton and Ferrari have made the most of Formula 1’s Testing of Previous Car [TPC] regulations in the build-up to the seven-time World Champion’s first season in red.

Ferrari wanted TPC days to be ‘policed’

The Briton put in his first laps in a Ferrari Formula 1 car at the Fiorano circuit on February 23, putting the SF-23 through its pace at the team’s private test track.

A week later he moved to the Barcelona circuit where he alternated the sessions with his new team-mate Charles Leclerc before a crash on Day 2 put an end to their running.

However, back at Barcelona a week later for a Pirelli tyre test, during which Hamilton and Leclerc drove a modified SF-24 to assist F1’s tyre manufacturer with their all-new 2026 tyres, Ferrari decided to also make an SF-23 available.

Leclerc drove that in the morning, his third day behind the wheel under the TPC regulations, but for Hamilton it was Day 4 when he got behind the wheel of the 2023 car in the afternoon.

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Under the TPC regulations, drivers in the current championship are limited to 1,000km of testing in old machinery across a maximum of four days.

Ironically for Hamilton and Ferrari, that regulation was refined last year when Ferrari and other teams voiced their displeasure when Max Verstappen drove Red Bull’s 2022 car in a TPC test at Imola.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur called it “clear development” from Red Bull’s perspective that was intended to give Verstappen a reference point in what he preferred about the 2022 car compared to his RB20.

Vasseur told media including PlanetF1.com in Spain: “It’s clearly development and what you could do with the young drivers that this permits another approach, it’s giving them the opportunity to sometimes to do mileage for the simulator and so to develop them – it’s another approach.

“I think, if we have to police it, we will have to split the two aspects – the day we are doing with our drivers and the days that we are doing with the non-racing drivers.”

Ferrari’s complaint led to the FIA tweaking the TPC regulations ahead of the F1 2025 championship.

A new set of sporting regulations was published in December by motorsport’s governing body that included a section on TPC tests.

Every driver taking part in a TPC test is now subject to mileage constraints, limiting these runs to 1,000 km over a maximum of four days. The cap means teams intent on ironing out any issues using older cars with their current drivers will be limited.

But in Hamilton’s case, it’s not limited, it’s over.

Although the Briton’s mileage in the SF-23 has not been revealed, he has been in the car four days which means he cannot run another TPC outing.

Ferrari, though, do still have one day in hand with Leclerc.

They also have another 19 days with reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi and 20 with new signing Zhou Guanyu as the rules differ for drivers not competing in the championship, who get a maximum of 20 TPC days per year.

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