Lewis Hamilton's Dream Car Restoration: The Ferrari F40
Lewis Hamilton has won almost everything there is to win in motorsport. Now he’s chasing something far more personal: the resurrection of his dream car.
At Maranello, far from the glare of the F1 paddock, the seven-time world champion is working with Ferrari’s engineers on a painstaking restoration of a Ferrari F40 – his own F40 – turning a dust-choked relic into a reborn icon.
A legend meets a legend
Only 1,311 Ferrari F40s ever left the factory between 1987 and 1993. Mid‑engined, rear‑wheel drive, engineered by Nicola Materazzi and shaped by Pininfarina, the car became an instant poster on bedroom walls and a permanent fixture in supercar folklore. A race version followed from 1994 to 1996, but for purists, the road car still sits on the throne.
It has been driven by the famous and the fortunate, revered by collectors, and protected like fine art. Decades on, its lines still look like a threat. Raw, low, and unapologetically aggressive.
For Hamilton, it has always been more than a beautiful machine. It has been the car.
He has spoken often of his love for the F40, and even in an era of hybrid hypercars and bespoke one‑offs, this late‑80s missile still owns his imagination. He doesn’t spend much time cruising around in road cars these days, but the F40 is different. It tugs at something deeper.
From childhood dream to Maranello workshop
When Hamilton arrived at Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season, the symbolism was impossible to miss. He was photographed at Maranello with an F40, the new Ferrari driver alongside the ultimate Ferrari road car. Earlier this year, he was seen driving an F40 through the streets of Japan during the Japanese GP weekend, the old-school turbo roar cutting through modern city noise.
Now the connection has gone a step further.
Hamilton has taken an F40 into his own possession and brought it “home” to Maranello, where Ferrari’s master engineers and mechanics are restoring it after it spent more than three decades sitting in a garage, buried under dust.
“My very own F40,” he wrote, unveiling the car in its neglected state. “This is the car of my dreams and has been for as long as I can remember. As a kid I dreamt of having one. When I joined Ferrari last year I made sure to have one with me on my first day at Maranello. That’s how much it means to me.”
The car he found was no pampered museum piece. It was a time capsule. Abandoned. Forgotten. Exactly the sort of discovery that makes a true enthusiast’s pulse race.
“These cars are works of art and incredibly rare, so when I found this one, covered in dust after being sat in a garage for over thirty years, I knew I had to bring her home,” Hamilton explained. Home, in this case, meant the very place where the F40 was born.
Bringing an icon back to life
Once the car arrived at Maranello, Ferrari’s specialists went to work. Weeks of meticulous effort followed as engineers and mechanics brought the machine back from its long sleep. Hamilton made a point of highlighting their role, offering a “massive thank you to everyone who had a hand in this project.”
For him, this is not a casual purchase or a fleeting luxury. It’s a restoration of a childhood fantasy with the help of the people who know the car better than anyone on earth.
“This has truly been a dream come true,” he said. “I can’t wait to share more with you all. Stay tuned.”
Hamilton has chased records, titles, and history in Formula 1. Now, in a quiet corner of Maranello, he’s chasing something else: the perfect version of the car that first made him fall in love with Ferrari.
