Ferrari will have a special occasion in Milan to celebrate the team’s multi-year sponsorship agreement with Italian bank Unicredit in March.
It comes following the signing of Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 World Champion, from Mercedes for the F1 2025 season.
Hamilton confirmed almost a year ago that he would join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025, ending his long and successful association with Mercedes.
Following the announcement on February 1 2024, Ferrari’s share price rocketed by more than 10 per cent to a new all-time high, with the union between the most decorated driver in F1 history and the sport’s most successful team poised to become a commercial juggernaut.
Ferrari announced in September that it had signed a “multi-year agreement” with Unicredit, with the bank “together with Ferrari in its Formula 1 racing activities”.
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At a joint press conference held Thursday at the sponsors’ headquarters in Milan, Ferrari and Unicredit announced that a special occasion would be held in the city in March.
It is expected to be a roadshow-style event involving Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc and is set to take place between the end of pre-season testing on February 28 and the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
The event is poised to give Hamilton an early experience of the team’s passionate fanbase, the Tifosi, ahead of F1’s return to Italy for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on May 18.
F1 will race twice on Italian soil for the sixth consecutive season in F1 2025, with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza scheduled for September 7.
Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari, said: “We are very pleased to embark on this partnership with UniCredit, a bank that embodies the same spirit of innovation and excellence that defines our brand.
“Together with them, we will celebrate our heritage and continue to redefine the limits of possible in racing and financial worlds.
“This collaboration represents an additional commitment to our customers, enthusiasts and communities, making sure they are at the center of each and every initiative.
“United, we look ahead to a long road full of passion and performance. “
Andrea Orcel, the CEO of the UniCredit Group, added: “UniCredit is extremely proud to launch this landmark partnership with a fellow Italian brand that respects its proud heritage, while looking globally and towards the future.
“Our multi-year partnership with Ferrari marks a new phase of collaboration, uniting the worlds of finance and motorsport, based on a strong and not unusual commitment: to bring ourselves to other people in the right way.
“Working together, we will provide high-performance financial solutions that empower our clients and communities to progress, and ensure that Ferrari’s fans can get as close to the action as possible.”
Reports last month claimed that Hamilton was close to striking a private sponsorship deal with Ferrari sponsor Celsius for the energy drink.
This follows Hamilton and Mercedes’ long-term deal with McLaren partner Monster at the end of the 2023 season.
There has also been speculation that Almave, the non-alcoholic tequila brand co-founded by Hamilton in 2023, could join Ferrari this season.
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Hamilton is expected to sign up for Ferrari on Monday, with his first day in Maranello expected to include a consultation with the simulator and meetings with his new engineers.
He is expected to take to the Fiorano track in Ferrari’s 2022 car, the F1-75, in the team’s classic ‘awakening’ for the drivers to catch up for the new season.
Hamilton’s pre-season schedule is expected to take him to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, home of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, for a TPC (Tests of Previous Car) race.
Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car, called Project 677, will be unveiled on February 19, a day after Hamilton and Leclerc appeared at the first collective F1 season launch event attended by all 10 in London.
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