Ferrari are set to retain their unusual pullrod rear suspension layout for Lewis Hamilton’s first season with the team in F1 2025, it has been claimed.

Hamilton rocked the Formula 1 world back in February by announcing that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, ending his long and successful association with Mercedes.

The British driver has collected six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 grand prix victories and pole positions.

Mercedes also have the distinction of powering each of Hamilton’s 351 F1 appearances to date, stretching back to his debut season with McLaren in 2007.

Reports from Italy over the summer claimed Ferrari had made the first design decisions over their F1 2025 car – codenamed Project 677 – including a revised wheelbase and a switch to pullrod front suspension.

The latter will see Ferrari follow in the footsteps of Red Bull and McLaren, with a pullrod front suspension layout thought to bring a significant aerodynamic benefit by enhancing airflow at the front of the car and specifically the complex underbody, which generates a high proportion of the car’s overall downforce under the current ground-effect regulations.

The move is said to have been directly influenced by Hamilton’s impending arrival, with his driving style closer in nature to that of F1 2025 team-mate Charles Leclerc than current incumbent Carlos Sainz, helping to facilitate the change of philosophy.

And now Italian publication La Gazzetta della Sport has revealed that Ferrari are poised to stick with a pullrod rear suspension for next season.

It is said that the packaging of the cooling system will also be “evolved” in order to give the aerodynamic department a greater degree of freedom, particularly in the lower section of the sidepods, with the location of internal gearbox parts set to be revised too.

With F1 2025 set to be the final year of the current rules cycle ahead of the major 2026 regulation changes, the report claims Project 677 will have a “clear family feeling” in many areas as Ferrari largely stick with their current car design, with “many current concepts taken to extremes, but not overturned.”

Ferrari’s rear suspension has been scrutinised throughout the ground-effect era, with the Scuderia and customer outfit Haas the only teams yet to switch to a pushrod layout.

The report claims Ferrari regard their pullrod rear suspension as a “cornerstone” of the car’s vehicle dynamics, with the team convinced it is a crucial factor in making their F1 2024 car the best on the grid in terms of tyre management.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at the launch of this year’s SF-24 in February, then-technical director Enrico Cardile was insistent that Ferrari saw no clear benefit to having pushrod layout at the rear of the car instead.

Cardile’s decision to move to Aston Martin for F1 2025, announced in July, had sparked suggestions that Ferrari could reconsider their stance on the rear suspension going forward, yet the team are poised to make no changes.

Ferrari’s new chassis technical director Loic Serra, who started work with Ferrari at the beginning of this month, was initially signed from Mercedes to work under Cardile, but found himself promoted following the Italian’s switch to Aston Martin.

Serra is known to be a close ally of Hamilton’s, having shared the seven-time World Champion’s reservations over the divisive zero-pod concept pursued by Mercedes under former technical director Mike Elliott across 2022/23.

Hamilton, who has just five races remaining of his Mercedes career, has grown increasingly emotional over recent weeks as the end of his time with the Brackley-based team nears.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, on the day Mercedes confirmed teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli was his successor for F1 2025, Hamilton admitted it was “very surreal” to see the seat he had held for so long allocated to a different driver.

He said: “I’ve known [about Antonelli’s promotion] for ages.

“I knew it would be announced this morning. I definitely woke up and it was very, very, very surreal to just have, at least officially confirmed, my seat is going that I held onto for so long.

“So it was quite emotional this morning, but I’m really, really happy for Kimi and for this team – I know Kimi is going to do a great job.”

Asked if he is becoming more emotional as the races tick by towards the end of his Mercedes career, he added: “It’s been there all year. Every single race you turn up.

“I love my team so much. We have been through a hell of a lot together so it will be emotional every single race.

“Because every race we do is the last time at that particular place. Every race we get closer and closer to the last time I’ll be in that Mercedes.

“It’s going to be tough, but my focus is just to do my best job for the team and to finish on a high.”

Hamilton elaborated on his emotions at the end of the Italian GP weekend, with the final European-based race of the F1 2024 season marking the last time he would use his room within Mercedes’ own hospitality unit on a race weekend.

“Leaving Monza, it hit me that it was the last European race this year,” he wrote in a social media post. “The last time I’ll be in my room in engineering that’s been my home for 12 years.

“This is such a unique time in my life, one that continues to bring out a lot of emotions. What I feel the most is pride and gratitude.

“The memories will last forever, as will the memories I make next year.”