Lewis Hamilton Takes Ferrari's Rare Three-Seat F1 Car to Fiorano

Lewis Hamilton has driven some of the fastest and most valuable race cars ever built, but his latest lap around Ferrari’s Fiorano test track stood out for an unusual reason: he wasn’t alone in the cockpit.

The seven-time world champion was spotted behind the wheel of Ferrari’s three-seat Formula 1 car, carrying two passengers around the team’s private circuit. Footage of the run spread quickly across social media, putting a spotlight back on one of the strangest machines Ferrari has ever built.

A Formula 1 Car Built to Carry Passengers

The car traces back more than two decades. Ferrari engineer Rory Byrne designed the three-seater in 2003, basing it on the dominant F2002 chassis that helped anchor one of the most successful stretches in the team’s history. Rather than the usual single-occupant layout, the car seats the driver in the center with two passengers positioned slightly behind on either side, giving select guests a seat inside something close to an actual F1 cockpit rather than a view from the grandstand. Ferrari updated the car again in 2013, modernizing components while keeping the original concept intact.

Power comes from a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V10 producing more than 800 horsepower, a holdover from an engine era F1 fans still talk about with real affection. It’s a big part of why the footage resonated: a screaming, decades-old V10 layout being exercised at speed rather than left to sit in a museum.

Good Timing for a Ferrari Highlight Reel

The Fiorano outing came just days after Hamilton took his first grand prix win as a Ferrari driver at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a milestone that had been the central question mark hanging over his move to the team. Months of speculation about whether the partnership between Formula 1’s most decorated driver and its most storied constructor would actually deliver results gave way, almost overnight, to a genuine highlight. A three-seater joyride at Fiorano days later read less like a routine test session and more like a small victory lap.

Why the Three-Seater Still Matters

Ferrari’s three-seater doesn’t fit neatly into any one category. It never raced for a championship, despite sharing its bones with a title-winning car. It isn’t a road car, despite carrying passengers. And it isn’t retired to a museum, since Ferrari still runs it. That in-between status is exactly what makes it a favorite among longtime enthusiasts: it exists purely to let a handful of people feel what an F1 car actually does, engine note included.

The identities of Hamilton’s two passengers at Fiorano haven’t been disclosed. What drove the video’s spread wasn’t really the mystery, though, it was the rare chance to see a 22-year-old passenger-carrying F1 car turned loose again, driven by the sport’s winningest driver, fresh off his first win in red.

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Shawn Henry

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Shawn Henry has spent years writing about cars, and it shows—not in a resume kind of way, but in how he talks about them. He's the type who'll notice the weird trim option nobody remembers and actually know why it mattered. At Backfire News, he covers pretty much the whole spectrum: off-road trucks and trail builds, performance cars, racing, and the collector market. He's comfortable getting into the technical weeds, but he never forgets that most people read about cars because cars are fun, not because they want a spec sheet. His beat runs from classic and collector vehicles to overlanding culture, modified performance builds, new automotive tech, and the industry news that actually affects what ends up in your driveway. Mostly, though, Shawn thinks the best car stories are about people—the builds they pour money into, the road trips, the communities that form around a shared obsession. That's the stuff he likes writing about, and it's what you'll find in his work here.

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