{"id":452204,"date":"2025-09-26T06:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452204\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T06:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:46:10","slug":"lewis-hamilton-replacement-named-as-ferrari-change-of-plan-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452204\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton replacement named as Ferrari change of plan emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari reserve driver Zhou Guanyu will deputise for Lewis Hamilton in Friday\u2019s Pirelli tyre test at Mugello, it has been confirmed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It comes after Hamilton pleaded for fans to send their \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d for his beloved dog Roscoe after \u201ca scary few hours\u201d on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton to miss Pirelli tyre test as Ferrari reserve steps in<\/p>\n

Ferrari and customer outfit Haas are at Mugello this week to aid Pirelli\u2019s development of its new tyres for the F1 2026 season.<\/p>\n

As reported by PlanetF1.com on Thursday<\/a>, Hamilton was expected to share driving duties with teammate Charles Leclerc at the Italian circuit on Friday for a \u2018final assessment\u2019 of Pirelli\u2019s hardest tyres for next season.<\/p>\n

However, Pirelli announced on Thursday evening that Zhou, the former Sauber F1 racer, will join Leclerc behind the wheel of the SF-25 mule car on Friday instead.<\/p>\n

No explanation was given for Hamilton\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

The apparent change of plan appears to be related to the health of Roscoe, the English bulldog adopted by Hamilton in 2013.<\/p>\n

Hamilton made an emotional social media post on Wednesday evening, calling for fans to keep Roscoe, 12, in their thoughts after an apparent health scare.<\/p>\n

Taking to Instagram\u2019s story function, which allows images and video clips to be posted for a maximum 24-period, Hamilton posted an image of Roscoe in an incubator with the accompanying message:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s been a scary few hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone please keep Roscoe in your thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysis: Azerbaijan Grand Prix<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Azerbaijan GP conclusions: Piastri SOS, Lando\u2019s big problem, Max\u2019s post-Horner wavelength<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Winners and losers from the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

Italian F1 reporter Rosario Giuliana appeared to indicate that Roscoe\u2019s health scare had prompted Hamilton to withdraw from the test, writing on social media that the seven-time World Champion would be missing \u201cfor understandable reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

PlanetF1.com has approached Ferrari for comment.<\/p>\n

Zhou\u2019s outing on Friday comes after the Chinese driver and Leclerc\u2019s younger brother, Arthur Leclerc, took part in a TPC [Testing of Previous Car] run behind the wheel of Ferrari\u2019s 2023 car at Mugello on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari pair were joined on track by Haas race drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, who carried out Pirelli test running in changeable conditions behind the wheel of an adapted 2024 car.<\/p>\n

Ocon completed 40 laps in the dry on Thursday morning to assist Pirelli\u2019s development of the hardest compounds of its F1 2025 tyre range.<\/p>\n

More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Lewis Hamilton news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Ferrari news<\/a><\/p>\n

With rain arriving late in the morning, Bearman completed 30 laps on intermediate tyres after taking over from his teammate.<\/p>\n

Haas\u2019s attention will turn to TPC running on Friday as the team reunites with Romain Grosjean<\/a>, who has not driven an F1 car since his grand prix career ended abruptly in a fiery accident at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Grosjean will split driving duties with James Hinchcliffe, the former IndyCar racer, who will receive his first-ever taste of F1 machinery to carry out filming for broadcaster F1 TV.<\/p>\n

A number of teams have provided so-called mule cars \u2013 heavily modified versions of current-specification machinery, designed to simulate the forces and downforce levels expected from the new F1 2026 cars \u2013 to assist Pirelli\u2019s development of its new tyres for next season.<\/p>\n

PlanetF1.com reported earlier this month that Ferrari trialled\u00a0a moveable, DRS-style mechanism on the front wing<\/a> of its mule car during a recent Pirelli tyre test in Hungary to replicate the effect of next year\u2019s active aerodynamics.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0From Crashgate to courtroom: A deep dive into Felipe Massa\u2019s $82 million lawsuit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari reserve driver Zhou Guanyu will deputise for Lewis Hamilton in Friday\u2019s Pirelli tyre test at Mugello, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,997,707,4200,225,998,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-452204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-lewis-hamilton","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115269257345604048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}