Lewis Hamilton Just Rescued A Ferrari F40 That Sat For Over 30 Years

Lewis Hamilton can afford just about any Ferrari he wants, but the seven-time Formula 1 world champion didn’t simply buy a pristine example of his dream car. Instead, Hamilton has revealed his very own Ferrari F40 after finding the legendary supercar covered in dust following more than three decades sitting in a garage.

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If there was ever a Ferrari destined to end up in Hamilton’s garage, it was the F40. He famously posed alongside one when he arrived at Maranello as a Ferrari driver in January 2025, and the car has remained closely tied to his relationship with the brand ever since. Now, that dream has become considerably more personal, and Hamilton didn’t send his long-dormant F40 to just any restoration shop. He took it home to Maranello.

Hamilton Found His F40 Covered In Dust After More Than 30 Years

Hamilton revealed the car on Instagram on August 31, calling the F40 the car of his dreams and explaining that he had wanted one since childhood. That also explains why an F40 featured so prominently during the beginning of his Ferrari career. Hamilton said he specifically made sure one was there on his first day at Maranello because of how much the model means to him.

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But the F40 Hamilton ultimately bought wasn’t some polished collector car waiting beneath showroom lights. According to Hamilton, he discovered the Ferrari covered in dust after it had been sitting inside a garage for more than 30 years. He hasn’t revealed where the car was stored, when he discovered it, who previously owned it, or exactly how the F40 came onto his radar.

That makes this considerably more interesting than Hamilton simply adding another expensive Ferrari to a collection. An F40 emerging after more than three decades off the road would be a remarkable find regardless of who bought it. For one of the most successful Formula 1 drivers in history, who now happens to race for Ferrari, finding his childhood dream car in that condition makes the story difficult to script any better. And Hamilton didn’t simply throw in a fresh battery, change the fluids and see whether the twin-turbo V8 would fire.

Ferrari Spent Weeks Bringing Hamilton’s F40 Back To Life

Hamilton sent the F40 directly to Maranello, where he says Ferrari’s engineers and mechanics spent weeks bringing the car back to life. Images accompanying his announcement show the F40 undergoing extensive work, including shots of Hamilton alongside the car and its removed powertrain. Exactly what Ferrari replaced, rebuilt or preserved hasn’t been detailed by Hamilton yet, so calling this a complete nut-and-bolt restoration would be getting ahead of what he’s actually confirmed. What we do know is that a Ferrari that apparently hadn’t been used in more than three decades required weeks of attention at the factory before returning to life. Hamilton thanked everyone involved in the project and described finally owning the F40 as a dream come true.

For an F40, getting that work done in Maranello is about as fitting as it gets. The model debuted in 1987 as Ferrari celebrated its 40th anniversary, combining a lightweight construction philosophy with a mid-mounted 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8. It became the final new Ferrari road car introduced during Enzo Ferrari’s lifetime and remains one of the defining supercars of its era. Though Hamilton has yet to reveal the chassis number or enough information about his particular F40 to establish its exact production history, mileage or specification.

Hamilton Says There’s More To Come

Hamilton ended his announcement with two words that should interest anyone who wants to see what happens when a Formula 1 champion gets his hands on an F40: “Stay tuned.” He didn’t elaborate, but that certainly suggests the initial restoration reveal isn’t the end of the story. We’ve already seen what Hamilton is willing to do with someone else’s F40. Earlier this year, he appeared in a heavily produced Tokyo video driving an F40 through the city and drifting it with Kim Kardashian riding alongside him. But his personal car hits different.

There’s another layer to the purchase, too. Hamilton revealed in 2025 that he had sold his car collection as his interests shifted toward collecting art. At the time, however, he identified the Ferrari F40 as the car he would still consider owning, describing it as a piece of art in its own right. Less than a year later, that exception has apparently become reality. Hamilton could have waited for one of the world’s best F40s to cross an auction block and written a check. Instead, he bought one that had apparently spent more than 30 years gathering dust and brought it back to Ferrari to be revived. For someone who has been dreaming about the F40 since childhood, there’s arguably no better way to finally get one. And judging by Hamilton’s promise that there’s more coming, we probably haven’t seen the best part yet.