Lewis Hamilton Faces Challenges After Italian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton walked out of Monza with a Ferrari race suit on his back but a Mercedes-sized problem in his mirrors.
A bruising Italian Grand Prix left the seven-time world champion convinced that any talk of Ferrari backing him over Charles Leclerc in the title fight has come far too late.
“It’s too late,” he said. “All I can do is just try and turn up.”
Chaos at Turn One
Ferrari’s home race unravelled almost immediately.
Hamilton launched from fourth, Leclerc from third. Into the first chicane, two red cars went side by side, and the room disappeared. Hamilton was pushed onto the grass as they fought wheel-to-wheel on the exit, tumbling from a front-row fight to 10th place within seconds.
Leclerc’s race imploded soon after. He lost the car at high speed at Parabolica, crashing out and triggering a red flag. The tifosi fell silent. Ferrari’s hopes of a podium rested solely on Hamilton, the new arrival already carrying the burden of expectation.
He never got close enough to trouble the Mercedes pair up front. While his former team marched to a dominant one-two, Hamilton laboured to sixth, his afternoon defined by damage limitation rather than redemption.
Before Sunday, he was level on points with George Russell in the standings. By the time he left Monza, Hamilton trailed his old team-mate by 10 and sat a daunting 76 points behind championship leader and race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“I think from today, we’ve just lost so much ground to [Mercedes] on points,” Hamilton admitted. “It’s never over until it’s over. I don’t know how many points it is now, but I’m sure it’s 60, 70. It’s an amount that, with the pace that they have, it’s a very, very difficult amount to close out.”
A Rivalry Ferrari Didn’t Want
Ferrari’s internal tension has been simmering for weeks.
At Zandvoort, Hamilton – already ahead of Leclerc in the championship – felt the team took too long to move the Monegasque out of his way. Leclerc was running third on a different strategy, Hamilton was on fresher tyres and quicker, yet the switch came late.
When Ferrari finally pitted Leclerc, Hamilton’s frustration spilled over the radio: “Great way of wasting time, good job.” He later apologised, but the message was clear. He expected sharper calls and clearer priority in a title chase slipping away.
Monza only deepened the fault lines.
Leclerc, speaking after his second-lap crash, accepted that the opening-lap fight with Hamilton had been on the edge.
He described it as “way too close into turn one” and said he wasn’t sure if there had been contact, adding: “I was quite a lot on the inside kerb and tried to make the corner, which I didn’t do it tight enough. And then I only saw in the mirrors what happened, which is never what you want between two cars of the same team.”
Hamilton saw it very differently.
“I was ahead in turn two by the ethics, I was ahead. There was no ‘we’ in it,” he said, underlining his view that he had earned the corner and been squeezed out.
Asked whether Ferrari fans should fear a full-blown team-mate feud, Hamilton pushed back.
“Look, I don’t race dirty. I’ve always raced clean and fairly and always left space. So I don’t think they should be worried about me.
“I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy. I stand by that and that’s all I can talk about.”
Vasseur’s Balancing Act
Team principal Frédéric Vasseur did not sugar-coat the situation. An incident between two red cars on lap one of Ferrari’s home race is the last thing any boss wants.
He called it “not good”, but he was quick to frame it as part of the reality every front-running team must manage when both drivers believe they are in the fight.
Vasseur pushed back against the idea that Ferrari should already have nailed its colours to one mast.
He pointed to last season, noting that Oscar Piastri led McLaren at this stage of the year. Had McLaren thrown everything behind him, he argued, Max Verstappen would still have cruised to the title for Red Bull.
“For sure, at one stage you have to make a decision,” Vasseur said, “but I think it was too early to make a decision before Monza. Now we have time to discuss with the guys.”
Hamilton’s view is more urgent. The gap to Mercedes is growing, and the season is moving fast.
“We Keep Getting the Same Result”
For Hamilton, the issue now stretches beyond one clumsy first lap or a delayed strategy call in Zandvoort. He sees a pattern.
“If we continue to travel the same path, we get the same result,” he said. “And it’s like we keep getting the same result. We’ve got to change things because it’s not helping us to move forward. I think they’re receptive to it and we’ll take it offline.”
The message is unmistakable: Ferrari’s communication, its racecraft as a unit, and its willingness to back a lead driver in time all sit under review.
Hamilton will get up tomorrow, as he put it, and give it his best. He always has. The question now is whether Ferrari move quickly enough – and decisively enough – to make that effort count in a title fight that is slipping out of reach.
