Ferrari’s first home race of 2024 in Imola is successfully underway. Tifosi displayed posters of “Let him cook” with Frederic Vasseur as the chef and Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Newey, and Charles Leclerc as the ingredients in the metaphorical pan of Ferrari’s grand 2025 championship plans. Hamilton is as excited as the Italian fans for his future with the teams in Scarlet Red. But one of Italy’s deep-rooted appeal worries him.

The 7-time champion has a special connection with Italy that dates back to his childhood. He and his former teammate, Nico Rosberg, were very close friends in their karting days before becoming arch-rivals at Mercedes. During the former period, they traveled a lot across what will be Hamilton’s F1 home from 2025 onwards – Italy. The Southern European country’s exquisite cuisine, including pizza and pasta, had the duo’s heart.

In front of a huge crowd in Imola, the Mercedes driver recalled those glorious days of racing in the day and hogging pizza in the night. “Back in the day, when I used to come here…I used to race a long, long time ago with Nico (Rosberg) in Sarno, Jesolo, Parma, and Lonato,” Hamilton said.

“We used to eat so much pizza,” he continued saying, with a smile. “God! We used to have like three pizzas a night, and Penne Arrabiata. My old mechanic, I think he was a duke. His grandmother made me the best lasagna ever.” After drooling over the memories, Hamilton highlighted how he has to avoid a repeat of that at all costs. “I have to be careful because next year, maybe, I get fat, I don’t know.”

While the positivity between Hamilton and Tifosi increases by the day, he still has to put up with Mercedes’s struggles. His lack of awareness in FP1 and FP2 also forced him to face the wrath of the other two champions on the grid.

Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso left fuming with Lewis Hamilton in Imola

Friday in Imola was a good day for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton was “grateful” to Mercedes for the beneficial upgrades that produced a “good start” to the Emilia Romagna GP weekend. But the Briton’s several impeding occurrences on his fellow drivers in FP2 didn’t go down well.

The 7-time champion impeded both Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen on different occasions. Alonso was the first victim of Hamilton’s W15 going slowly on the racing line. “Hamilton thinks that he is alone on the track! ” the Aston Martin driver exclaimed. “It’s the second lap he does it – turn 12 and now turn seven.”

Verstappen faced a similar fate when his flying lap had to be aborted because of an unaware Hamilton’s “cool down lap”. Though he acknowledged his mistake and apologized after the practice session, the Red Bull driver chose not to elaborate on the issue.

Hamilton probably cannot wait for his last year with Mercedes to end quickly. Tifosi’s undying support for him even before he has donned Ferrari’s racing suit will act as a propeller for this feeling.