F1 – What is the “TPC”, these private tests that Ferrari will organize for Hamilton at Fiorano?

The time is approaching: Lewis Hamilton will soon put on the red suit for the first time in his career and take the wheel of a car bearing the Prancing Horse! The Briton should experience his first laps on the track aboard a Ferrari in the coming days, on January 20 and 21 on the private Fiorano track, very close to the Maranello factory… weather conditions permitting (from the rain is forecast this Monday and Tuesday in Maranello). However, don't expect the seven-time world champion to take the wheel of the SF-24 of 2024, and even less of the future Ferrari for the 2025 season!

Indeed, in order to prepare the English driver for procedures specific to the Scuderia and give him a first feeling of the track aboard a Ferrari, the Italian team will have its new driver ride in old single-seaters as part of a “Testing of Previous Cars” program, or “TPC”, literally “Testing with Previous Cars” in French. Private tests supervised by the FIA ​​in the Sporting Regulations and which allow teams to benefit from running time – outside of the tests organized and authorized by F1 with current cars (winter tests, post-season tests, Pirelli tests , promotional filming, etc.) – with single-seaters entered a few seasons ago.

What is TPC?

Concretely, what does this famous “Testing of Previous Cars” consist of, from which Lewis Hamilton will benefit to acclimatize to Scuderia Ferrari before the first winter tests in Bahrain (February 26-28)? According to the official definition of the FIA, as enshrined in the 2025 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, a TPC “is defined as any time of running on a track, not part of a competition, in which a competitor entered in the championship takes part (…) using cars which have been designed and constructed to comply with the Technical Regulations of one of the three calendar years immediately preceding the calendar year preceding the year of the championship. »

More explicitly, the TPC allows teams to run a single-seater dating from a minimum of two years ago, and a maximum of five years. That is to say that in 2025, all teams will be able to run their 2021, 2022 and 2023 cars as part of the TPC. Ferrari will therefore be authorized to place Lewis Hamilton in its 2023 SF-23 or even in its 2022 F1-75, the Scuderia's first two single-seaters meeting the regulations for ground-effect single-seaters introduced in 2022.

Be careful, however: within the framework of the TPC, the teams must only run “with cars built according to the specifications of the period. Cars must only use components and software whose specification has been used in at least one competition of a championship season during the mentioned period, i.e. between 2021 and 2023. No developments is not permitted on these older models, unless it concerns “reasons of cost, reliability, safety, lack of availability or condition of the track”modifications which must first be validated by the FIA.

New limitations in 2025

In 2025, new lines were included in the Sporting Regulations in order to regulate and limit these TPCs, which are increasingly popular with teams. From this year, teams can only use one car per day, over nine-hour days running from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. TPCs are now restricted to 20 days per year, with a limit of 1000 kilometers over four days for regular pilots, while reservists or development pilots do not have specific mileage to respect.

Finally, the TPCs must be organized on FIA Grade 1 circuits with the ban on driving on the circuits appearing on the calendar during the 60 days preceding the event organized on the same circuit. Ferrari will race Lewis Hamilton at Fiorano – an FIA Grade 1 approved circuit, although it will never host Formula 1 – on January 20-21, then at Barcelona before the end of January, more than five months before the Spanish Grand Prix (May 30 – June 1), so the Scuderia is indeed in good standing.

Please note, the TPCs should not be confused with the TCCs (“Testing of Current Cars”), which concerns single-seaters from the current season or the previous season, nor with the THCs (“Testing of Historic Cars”) concerning all cars designed more than five years ago. For example, in Jérez on Wednesday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli drove a 2020 Mercedes W11 – meeting the old technical regulations – under a THC program, and not TPC, in order to keep TPC days available during the season.

Ferrari customary in fact

Lewis Hamilton will not be the first world champion to discover driving an old Ferrari on the Fiorano track for his first drive with the Scuderia. Ten years earlier, during the winter of 2014-2015, Sebastian Vettel also had the opportunity to drive the 2012 Ferrari F2012 on the private Fiorano track in order to acclimatize to the Italian team before his big debut in red , in 2015.

Before Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, when private testing was much less supervised and limited than today, Ferrari did not hesitate to run its new drivers on its track when they were available. That's the advantage of having your own track a few hectometers from your facilities! A luxury that only Ferrari can boast of.

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