Lewis Hamilton 44 — The Yellow Glove

In January 2025, Lewis Hamilton drove a Ferrari Formula One car for the first time. It was a 2023-specification SF-23, wearing his number 44, at the Fiorano test track in Maranello. A crowd of roughly a thousand people gathered on a bridge above the circuit in cold, foggy weather to watch him complete thirty laps. Hamilton had spent twelve years and six World Championships at Mercedes. He was forty years old. He had said that driving for Ferrari was fulfilling a childhood dream.

The number 44 had never appeared on a Ferrari in the modern era of permanent race numbers, which began in 2014. But in the history of the sport, one Ferrari driver had already won a Grand Prix carrying that number: Maurice Trintignant, at the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix. It was the same season in which Trintignant drove the Ferrari 121 LM at Le Mans and the 555 Supersqualo in Formula One — two cars that also appear in this collection. Seventy years later, Hamilton brought the number back to Maranello.

Hamilton’s career statistics define the scale of the move. Seven World Championships, tied with Michael Schumacher for the most in history. Over 100 Grand Prix victories — the all-time record. Over 100 pole positions. The first and, at the time of writing, only Black driver to race in Formula One. His departure from Mercedes ended the most successful driver-constructor partnership in the sport’s history by multiple measures. His arrival at Ferrari was reported to be worth £41 million per year. Within weeks of his signing, Ferrari’s merchandise partner Puma reported an eightfold increase in apparel sales.

The glove is the last thing a driver puts on before the helmet. It is the point of contact between the human hand and the machine — the steering wheel, the paddle shifters, the buttons that control engine modes and differential settings. Hamilton’s gloves for Ferrari are yellow, matching the colour he adopted for his helmet design in recent seasons. The Prancing Horse appears on the back of each glove. It is a small detail, easy to miss in broadcast footage, but it carries the entire weight of the transfer: the most successful driver in Formula One history wearing the most famous emblem in motorsport on his skin.

This piece is a hand-drawn digital illustration, not a photograph. The technique combines precise digital rendering with visible pencil-sketch underdrawing, leaving the construction of the image partially exposed. The colour is completed where it matters — the yellow of the glove, the red of the Prancing Horse, the black of the number 44. The rest remains in graphite. The effect is intentional: this is not a finished moment. It is the moment before the moment. The silence before the visor comes down and the engine fires.

The edition size is 99 — larger than the standard Still Motion edition of 49 — reflecting the scale of the subject and the audience it speaks to. Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is the most significant driver transfer in Formula One history. This illustration exists to mark the moment it became real: not the first lap, not the first race, but the instant before both, when the glove goes on and the Prancing Horse touches the driver’s hand for the first time.