Since Mercedes-Benz->ke187 is not making a hypercar at the moment, the carmaker's Formula One drivers have to look elsewhere to quench their thirst for F1-derived performance in a road car. Nico Rosberg drove a C63 AMG until recently, but Lewis Hamilton is a bit more flamboyant in his choices of personal cars. After ordering a bespoke Zonda 760 Roadster from Pagani,->ke66 Lewis bought himself a Ferrari LaFerrari as a present for winning the 2014 Formula One Championship.

Normally, which road car is driven by an F1 driver falls under "celebrity gossip," something that we don't cover on TopSpeed, but this time it's different. As most of you know, Ferrari->ke252 is battling Mercedes-Benz in Formula One, and Lewis is still under contract with the three-pointed star. In other words, the Brit buying a car from its team's arch-enemy is bound to raise some suspicion, but fortunately it doesn't seem to pose a problem for his bosses. "Sure, Lewis has had contact with Ferrari," Toto Wolff, Executive Director at Mercedes-AMG Petronas, confirmed to Germany's Sport Bild. "He has just bought a LaFerrari. We have no problem with that." he continued.

Hamilton is not the first F1 driver to buy a LaFerrari->ke4626 while under contract with one of Ferrari's opponents on the track. In 2014, Sebastian Vettel awarded himself with a similar hypercar while driving for Red Bull, but his contract didn't allow him to make it public. A year later, Seb jumped ship to Ferrari, so various media outlets began reporting that Hamilton might do the same.

Continue reading to learn more about Hamilton's new acquisition.

Why it matters

One of three hybrid hypercars that are currently on the market, along the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder, the LaFerrari is the fastest and most expensive road-going Ferrari in history. The car is powered by a 6.3-liter, V-12 engine that delivers 789 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. Those insane numbers are augmented by a 161-horsepower electric motor, rising the total output to 950 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. All that power is delivered to the rear wheels through a seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission, resulting in a 0-62 mph time of under 3.0 seconds, a 0-124 mph time of under 7.0 seconds and a top speed of over 217 mph.

It's no wonder Lewis is infatuated with the model, but this is far from giving a hint about his departure from Mercedes-AMG Petronas and going to Ferrari, like Sebastian Vettel. To add more fuel to the fire, Lewis's contract with Mercedes expires at the end of 2015, but the Brit is currently discussing an extension, so I really don't think that he will jump ship to Ferrari just because he enjoys the road cars from Maranello. The again, stranger things have happened in F1.

Ferrari LaFerrari

Read our full review here.