Lewis Hamilton sold every car he owned, then bought a barn-find Ferrari F40

Lewis Hamilton has bought a Ferrari F40. The seven-time Formula 1 champion revealed on Instagram, ahead of Ferrari's home race at Monza, that he found a car which had been sitting in a garage for more than 30 years and sent it to Maranello for a full restoration.

"This is the car of my dreams and has been for as long as I can remember," Hamilton wrote.

The one car he said he would buy

In 2025, not long after joining Ferrari, Hamilton sold his entire road-car collection, reportedly worth around $18 million. At the time he said he would only buy another car if it was an F40. He has now followed through and the one he picked is a barn find.

Judging by the plates in his photos, the car appears to have been registered in Italy, so it may not have travelled far. It gathered dust from the 1990s until Hamilton came across it. Ferrari's own engineers then spent several weeks bringing it back, and the photos show an engine-out recommissioning rather than a wash and polish.

Hamilton has also said he wants to design a Ferrari of his own, an "F44" in his words, built on the F40's baseline with a real manual gearbox.

Why the F40 is the one

Ferrari built roughly 1,315 F40s between 1987 and 1992, and it was the last car Enzo Ferrari personally approved before his death. It is often called the first true supercar, and it earned that by refusing everything modern. No ABS, no traction control, no power steering, a twin-turbo V8 behind your head, and a body of composite panels so thin you can see the weave through the paint.

That is also why it still looks amazing 40 years later. It is the opposite of a modern hypercar dressed up to look fast, and it is the reason a driver who could have anything, and who has driven everything, went and found a dusty one to fix up.

Sources:

Hamilton's reveal, the 30-year garage find, and the Maranello restoration: Motor1

The 2025 collection sale and the F40 promise: Top Gear

Hamilton's Instagram quote: ESPN