Lewis Hamilton fulfills childhood dream by buying legendary Ferrari F40Lewis Hamilton got rid of his car collection last year, but there was always one model he said he would make an exception for. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has now finally bought a Ferrari F40, a car he says he has dreamed about since childhood. Hamilton posted photos of his F40 on Instagram, which is currently undergoing extensive restoration at Ferrari’s factory in Maranello. According to him, the car spent more than 30 years in a garage before he found it. Judging by the license plates, it appears that the example had already been registered in Italy. For unknown reasons, the previous owner did not use it for years, so the car spent most of its life gathering dust. It is one of just over 1,300 F40s produced, a model that holds a special place in Ferrari history as the last road car introduced during Enzo Ferrari’s lifetime. “This is the car of my dreams” Hamilton did not hide how much the purchase means to him. “My very own F40. 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,” he wrote. He also recalled joining Ferrari at the beginning of 2025. “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. These cars are works of art and incredibly rare,” he added. Hamilton says he immediately knew he wanted the car when he found the example that had been sitting covered in dust for more than three decades. “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. First to Maranello, where the master engineers and mechanics at the factory worked for weeks to bring her back to life.” He thanked everyone who took part in the restoration and added that buying the F40 was “a dream come true” for him, while announcing that he would reveal more details about the car soon. Posed with an F40 on his first day at Ferrari Hamilton’s love for the F40 is nothing new. When he officially joined Ferrari in January 2025, one of the first photos marking the beginning of the new chapter in his career showed him standing next to a red F40 in Maranello. The carefully planned photo in front of Ferrari’s historic headquarters quickly became one of the most memorable images from Hamilton’s first day with the Scuderia. Not long afterward, the Briton revealed that he would also like to work with Ferrari on a modern interpretation of the legendary supercar. He even came up with a name, F44, as a tribute to his racing number 44. How much is a Ferrari F40 worth? Hamilton did not reveal how much he paid for his example, while the condition in which he found it and the restoration make any estimate even more difficult. However, the F40 is now one of the most sought-after collectible Ferraris, with prices for the best examples reaching millions. RM Sotheby’s sold one F40 with only 1,799 kilometers on the clock for €4.3 million in April. For Hamilton, however, this particular example clearly has a value that cannot be reduced only to numbers. Iconic F40 The Ferrari F40 was introduced in 1987 as a car marking the brand’s 40th anniversary, and it is also remembered as the last road-going Ferrari personally approved by Enzo Ferrari before his death in 1988. Developed as an extreme evolution of the 288 GTO, the F40 used a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 478 hp and 577 Nm. Power was sent to the rear wheels through a manual gearbox, and thanks to a lightweight construction made of steel and composite materials, the car weighed around 1,100 kilograms. It accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds and reached 324 km/h, becoming the first production road car to break the 320 km/h barrier. Pininfarina’s design, the huge rear wing and the distinctly spartan interior without the luxury features common at the time further cemented its status as one of the most famous supercars of all time.
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