Will Ferrari Really Build Lewis Hamilton's Stick-Shift F44 Supercar?
FIORANO MODENESE, ITALY - FEBRUARY 19: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Ferrari acknowledges the ... More fans at the end of the days running at Fiorano Circuit on February 19, 2025 in Fiorano Modenese, Italy. (Photo by)
Ferrari hasn't offered a stick-shift manual transmission option for any of its supercars since the California back in 2012. Ever since, its cars have been built exclusively with paddle-operated, semi-automatic 'boxes.
But what if the company's newest, most high-profile employee wanted to bring back the famous gated manual shifter? And what if that person also wanted this hypothetical supercar to be a successor to the legendary F40?
That person is Lewis Hamilton, seven-time Formula One World Champion and current Ferrari team driver. Speaking after the season-opening race in Australia earlier his month, Hamilton told the Motorsport.com website that he wants to design a Ferrari supercar.
'One of the things I really want to do is, I want to design a Ferrari. I want to do an F44,' the British driver said, in reference to the 44 race number he has used his entire career, and which was inspired by the license plate of his father's old car.
Giving more details of the car he'd like to create, Hamilton added, 'Baseline of an F40, with the actual stick shift. That's what I'm gonna work on for the next few years.'
It's no surprise that Hamilton is a big fan of the F40. The first official photographs published by Ferrari after he joined the team saw Hamilton standing in front of a red F40 and Enzo Ferrari's former home, on the grounds of the company's Italian headquarters.
WOODSTOCK, UNITED KINDOM - SEPTEMBER 5: The Ferrari F40 seen at Salon Prive, held at Blenheim ... More Palace. Each year some of the rarest cars are displayed on the lawns of the palace, in the UK's most exclusive Concours d'Elegance. (Photo by)
Although Ferrari hasn't spoken publicly about plans to resurrect the F40, which was produced between 1987 and 1992, the company has its Icona series of supercars that draw inspiration from past models. This line began with the Monza SP1 and SP2, which arrived in 2019 as open-topped, roadster-style throwbacks to the Ferrari 750 Monza of the 1950s.
These were followed by the Daytona SP3 (pictured below) in 2022. Still in production, it draws inspiration from the Ferrari 330 P4 endurance race car from the mid-1960s. All of Ferrari's SP cars belong to the Icona product line and all are built in small numbers, with fewer than 1,000 units of each leaving the Maranello factory. Prices start at around $2m, plus optional extras, and they are seen as the most treasured contemporary models among Ferrari collectors. Arguably more so, in the case of the Daytona SP3, than the company's next-generation hypercar, the F80 hybrid.
Although borrowing design cues from cars of old – and shunning the batteries and electric motors of the hybrid drivetrain used by other Ferraris – the Icona family of SP cars all use dual-clutch, semi-automatic transmissions.
LONDON, UNITED KINDOM - APRIL 21: The Ferrari Daytona SP3 at Salon Prive London, held at the Royal ... More Chelsea Hospital. This is Salon Prive's first event held in London, with many manufactures unveiling their newest cars. (Photo by)
Ferrari sees itself as a supercar company positioned at the cutting edge of automotive technology, and one that fits its street cars with tech born on the race track. Indeed, its 355 supercar was the first to be fitted with a paddle-operated transmission, which Ferrari called F1, back in the mid-1990s, as a showcase of how Formula One tech can be delivered to customers as well as world champions.
But today's supercar buyer – or rather, today's hypercar buyer – wants more than bleeding-edge motorsport tech. Electric motors have democratized performance to such an extent that Hyundai and Volvo now produce cars as quick to 60 mph as the Ferraris of just a generation ago.
Ultra-wealthy car collectors want experiences, and since blasting to 60 mph in under three seconds is now available everywhere, their attention has shifted to driving pleasure. Limited-run, highly-focused supercars like the GMA T.50 by Gordon Murray, the Aston Martin Valour, the Pagani Utopia and the Hennessey Venom all give their drivers extra involvement via a stick shifter and a clutch pedal instead of record-breaking acceleration. So too do restomod companies like Singer, Theon and Alfaholics, while even some startups that electrify classic cars have developed ways to incorporate a manual shifter.
These cars prove there are customers ready to open their checkbooks for Lewis Hamilton's F44. There might only be a few hundred such people, but Ferrari will only build 699 examples of its Daytona SP3, and commissioned just 499 of each for the SP1 and SP2, so is no stranger to limited production runs. Given how the comparatively tiny Gordon Murray Automotive sold all 100 examples of its T50 supercar within 48 hours of being revealed, I don't see Ferrari having any trouble selling many more F44s – not least because it'll pack the trifecta of Lewis Hamilton, a stick shift and the F40's bloodline. That's the sort of pedigree only Ferrari can draw upon, and Hamilton knows it.
Will Ferrari pay the vast sums required to develop such a car, especially when it is unlikely to share much with other models? This isn't an easy question to answer, especially since Ferrari is a public company with both investors and customers to keep happy. It's a tantalizing prospect though, and one I hope Ferrari gives some serious consideration.
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