Seven-time Formula One World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is already enjoying the perks of being a Ferrari driver, despite the 2025 season not yet having started. On Wednesday the Briton posted a new video to his social media channels making his debut in a major Hollywood motion picture. Though weirdly the film came out when Hamilton was merely one year of age, as it was the 1986 comedy heavyweight “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Hamilton worked with Dawn Apollo Films, Large Eyes, and Paramount Pictures to fully insert himself as the joyriding parking lot valet drifting and jumping Cameron’s father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder around the streets of Chicago. Only 56 examples of that car were ever made, and thankfully for car enthusiasts everywhere, the one they destroyed for the film was actually a Ford 302-powered fiberglass replica, not the 8-figure alloy original. Hamilton said he “had to get the exact car” for this scene remake, so perhaps this is also a replica and not a Ferrari at all? In any case, as a fan of the film myself, I’m impressed.
The shot-for-shot remake of the fully restored scene inserted Hamilton as the mildly shady valet that Bueller pays off with a fiver to take extra good care of the delightful Ferrari. In the original sequence the driver is played by Richard Edson and his co-pilot is Larry Flash Jenkins, but in this revamped edition Edson’s stand-in is Hamilton, while Jenkins is re-cast as legendary Hollywood master Edward Norton. Norton has been confused for Matthew Broderick’s “Bueller” co-star Alan Ruck for decades, so this was probably a bit cathartic for Norton.
A dream come true
Lewis posted that the film (which you can find here) “has been one of my favourite movies since I was a kid,” and ends the short nearly three-minute clip with an inspirational dedication quote credited to himself: “For all the kids out there who dream the impossible.” Most young drivers who dream of making it to Formula One will never get there, and many young drivers who actually do dream of one day driving for Ferrari and never do. For Lewis, this has been a decades-long journey to get to the top of the sport and earn his way into the Scuderia. He calls the short film “Another dream come true …” on YouTube, indicating that driving for the team has perhaps been a dream as long as he’s loved watching the Ferrari in “Ferris Bueller.” Andiamo, Lewis, Forza Ferrari.
