Lewis Hamilton to sit out of all important Ferrari test as Charles Leclerc gets first run on the game-changer upgrade: Reports

Ferrari has been poised to bring a major rear suspension upgrade to the Belgian GP, and the Scuderia has decided to make an early run with the new package, without Lewis Hamilton. According to reports, the prancing horses will host a filming day at Mugello Circuit, where Charles Leclerc was chosen to run the car instead of the seven-time champion.

Hamilton has yet to score a podium finish in the 2025 season, while Leclerc has already mustered four top-three results so far. The Briton's gap to his teammate has often appeared a tough one to close, but the British GP saw a role reversal where the seven-time champion was the lead Ferrari driver as the Monegasque struggled down the road.

Though Leclerc is still the lead Scuderia driver in the championship standings, many expect that Ferrari's hyped-up rear-suspension upgrade package could help Hamilton get onto the Monegasque's performance levels. However, a spanner in the works has seemingly appeared for the Briton in his 2025 ambitions.

According to an Italian publication, the Maranello-based squad has opted to utilize one of its filming days to test the new upgrade package. However, Hamilton would not be present at the Mugello circuit as Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi would be at the helm of the Ferrari SF-25.

This would help Leclerc and Giovinazzi get an early reading on the upgrade, while Lewis Hamilton would have to wait till the Belgian GP to get the first taste of the revitalized rear suspension.

---

Would Lewis Hamilton's absence at the test affect him in his intra-team battle with Charles Leclerc?

Lewis Hamilton driving the Ferrari SF-25 at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton had reduced his deficit to Charles Leclerc in the championship standings after the British GP. The two are now separated by 16 points in the drivers' table.

However, considering the 40-year-old had been at Mercedes for the past dozen years, this gap seems minimal. Hamilton has often complained about braking issues with the SF-25, as he had earlier said in the year, via Formula 1:

"It's not the transition, it's the performance. It's a lottery, we'll roll the dice and you put one [pad] on and it works and put another on and it doesn't. I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we're working on it for sure.

"I literally changed two of the tiniest things that shouldn't have had barely any effect at all, the smallest change we've probably done this year and we had some brake issues that then made a massive difference so that was then a fight with that. That's been quite a big issue all year actually."

On the other hand, though Leclerc will gain some crucial mileage in the test, F1 teams are limited to 200 km of running during filming days. Moreover, this allowance would be split between him and Antonio Giovinazzi.

As an FIA ECU and special tires for the occasion would be fitted to the car, there is minimal benefit that the Monegasque would gain in the longer term, with Ferrari eager to get the upgrade package onto the track.