Lewis Hamilton was spotted at Ferrari's Fiorano test track in an unusual car shortly after his victory at the Barcelona Grand Prix, his first win in almost two years. The car Hamilton was behind the wheel of was a special three-seater Ferrari F1 racing car, based on the legendary F2002 model from the Michael Schumacher era and designed by Rory Byrne.
Following his victory in Barcelona, Hamilton drove a three-seater, 800-horsepower Ferrari based on a Schumacher-era F2002 at Fiorano! #F1 #Ferrari #FrenYokhttps://t.co/MjGd6ZhJfB pic.twitter.com/Mo770QHMPf
— Fren Yok (@frenyok46) June 23, 2026
The legendary 800 horsepower machine
This car is among the three-seater models produced by various F1 teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s to give fans a taste of the thrill of racing. Revised in 2013, the car produces 800 horsepower. Rory Byrne was the architect of the chassis and aero designs that contributed to Schumacher's five World Championships with Ferrari between 1996 and 2006. Footage of Hamilton driving this car at Fiorano quickly spread on social media.
Schumacher memory and Barcelona connection
Speaking after his victory in Barcelona, Hamilton recounted how, in 1996 when he was 11 or 12 years old, he sat on his couch watching Schumacher win his first Grand Prix for Ferrari at the same track on television. Hamilton said, "I was thinking what it would feel like to sit in the red cockpit.".
Thirty years passed between Schumacher's victory in Barcelona and Hamilton's win last week. Hamilton's Barcelona victory propelled him to second place in the World Championship standings; one of the architects of the win was the bold and accurate strategic decision of race engineer Carlo Santi.
