What Did Lewis Hamilton & Charles Leclerc Get Up to at Ferrari’s Private Track Day?
There’s a point just outside Milan in the Italian province of Monza Brianza where the road begins to empty out. Security posts appear one after another, each one a quiet threshold into the red world of motorsports.
Past the security posts, small crowds have already gathered, fans lingering along the perimeter, suspended in anticipation, waiting to catch a flash of red, the echo of an engine, or the legendary F1 drivers in action. Scuderia Ferrari HP opened the gates to us, beyond the security barriers, for a behind-the-scenes look at a filming day behind closed doors with star F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Inside the circuit, everything operates with precision. Ferrari’s signature red is everywhere. It runs across the architecture, wraps around mobile offices, and appears in the uniforms of drivers and crew. Every detail, from the layout of the paddock to the choreography of the teams, reflects a system carefully built down to the last detail. The teamwork is instinctive.
What happens here is functional to collecting content for Ferrari and its partners, with the car featuring upgrades first seen in front of full crowds and global attention at the Miami Grand Prix on May 3. On a filming day, the sound cuts through the space without warning, echoing off the structures before the eye can fully catch up. At more than 300 kilometers per hour, the cars are difficult to follow. They pass in an instant, a flash of movement that leaves the vibration of their speed behind.
The precision we see is the result of a routine rarely seen. As Lewis Hamilton tells us, “People think that this April month without a single race has been a break, and it hasn’t… I’ve been at the factory working with the team, training five to six days a week.”
Even within that intensity, focus remains a constant discipline. “There’s so much going on. I put my headphones in and kind of find that center peace and that rhythm,” says Hamilton, describing the mental process behind the performance. “Afrobeats is always a good vibe, it gets you in a good mood,” he adds, setting the tone before he even steps into the car.
Trying to capture the moment proves almost futile. By the time our cameras find focus, the car has already disappeared down the straight. Somewhere within that blur, Charles Leclerc is at the wheel, but at this pace, the distinction between driver and machine becomes almost indistinguishable.
Ferrari’s strength this season has been built in moments like these. Their race starts, among the sharpest on the grid so far, have consistently set the tone early, turning preparation into immediate advantage. It’s the kind of marginal gain that can define a race before it fully unfolds. But beyond the structure, there is something less tangible driving it forward. For Leclerc, that comes down to the culture. “Passion is something I personally believe in deeply,” he says, pointing to the atmosphere within Ferrari, “and you can feel it across the entire team. Everyone is so passionate.”
That drive is also personal. Leclerc points to his family as a constant source of motivation. “My parents are what I always think of to push me forward. They’ve always been my biggest motivation,” he says.
Around the track, the energy remains high with each lap. Camera crews move alongside the action in support vehicles, leaning out to follow the cars as closely as possible. There’s a visible mix of concentration and adrenaline, moments of quiet focus interrupted by bursts of laughter as even the seasoned team reacts in real time to the speed unfolding in front of them.
As the day progresses, there is no clear peak. Engines rise and fall, crews reset positions, drivers cycle through runs. All of it leads forward to the unpredictability of race day, where every movement is amplified. On May 3, at the Miami Grand Prix, the same precision will unfold in front of a global audience, where fractions of a second define the outcome. For us, somewhere between what was seen and what slipped past, the experience settles. Not fully captured, not entirely understood, but felt. Brief, precise, and impossibly fast.
