Ferrari's Monza Challenge: Hamilton Eyes Victory
Lewis Hamilton knows exactly what Monza means to Ferrari. He also knows an engine upgrade alone will not be enough.
The seven-time world champion called Ferrari’s new power unit for the Italian Grand Prix “a step forward but not the whole amount we need” as the team rolls out the second and final engine upgrade of its season on home soil.
Ferrari arrive with a car that dances through corners but drags on the straights. Around Monza, the “Temple of Speed”, that imbalance has been brutal.
“Every little helps,” Hamilton said. “Until this point of the year, even last race, we were losing 0.4secs a lap on the straights. We have carried that deficit. This is a step forward. It is not the whole amount we need but we knew that was the case. I strongly believe we have what it takes to win.”
Ferrari are gambling that this is the moment to strike: their car is sharp in the twisty sections, the engine has been strengthened, and the championship leader will be starting from the back.
Ferrari, Monza and a chance at history
Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc have one win each this season, yet Hamilton trails Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 59 points in the standings. That gap underlines how ruthlessly consistent Antonelli has been, but also how costly Ferrari’s straight-line weakness has proved.
“To win this weekend, the whole collective has to come together. Everything has to flow from the beginning,” Hamilton said, fully aware of what victory here would represent.
“There is a first ahead of me, in the sense of if I was to win I go into new territory winning for the first time in Ferrari at Monza. It would be phenomenal.
“The pressure’s high. You want to do it for the team. Many of them will come to this race. The tifosi come out in huge numbers with a passion that's unmatched.
“And my mum's here. I don't think she's been to Monza, and certainly not with Ferrari. I wanted her to experience this and bring any lucky dust she can bring.”
Ferrari’s home race always feels like a pilgrimage. This year, it doubles as a rare opening in a title fight that has so far belonged to Mercedes.
Antonelli’s penalty opens the door
Antonelli will start from the back after exceeding his allocation of power-unit components, a consequence of earlier reliability issues that forced Mercedes to dip into a fifth engine.
The penalty was always coming. Mercedes chose Monza because the fresh engine’s punch on the long straights should help their driver cut through traffic, while also smoothing engine management for the rest of the year.
Hamilton, though, is under no illusion that starting last will blunt Antonelli’s threat.
“There is big gap between the top teams and the rest,” he said. “Kimi will start from the back but with the power he has, and the performance he has, he should slide through that pack pretty easy and it's probably why they chose this race to do that.
“So achieving eighth or sixth should be relatively easy. We have to focus on maximising our weekend and try and take the energy from the tifosi to hopefully push us to the front.”
George Russell will face a similar penalty later in the season, likely in Azerbaijan, as Mercedes manage their engine pool across the calendar.
Antonelli, for his part, is taking the setback with a measure of calm.
“I am very much looking forward to this weekend despite starting from the back,” he said. “I will be able to enjoy it more than I did previously and hopefully we will still be able to have a good race.
“In some ways it helps to release pressure, although I would very much rather fight for pole and start at the front.
“It makes me a bit more relaxed going into the weekend. I think this track can be very good for us but we have to take into account that McLaren, Ferrari, even Red Bull can be good this weekend.”
A Monza defined by energy, not just speed
This year’s Italian Grand Prix will not just be about who has the biggest engine number on the straights. It will be about who manages to keep their hybrid systems alive longest.
Antonelli highlighted Monza’s unusual “energy starved” profile. With its endless full-throttle sections and heavy braking zones, the track offers limited chances to harvest electrical energy, leaving cars without full battery deployment for a larger slice of the lap than at most venues.
“There are other tracks where it is possible to overtake but this one is very energy starved and there are a lot of places where you can race differently and it gives us the best chance to climb through the field,” Antonelli said.
Drivers expect a tactical, sometimes frustrating race. Slipstreaming will be vital, not just for lap time but for energy saving. Expect long trains of cars in qualifying, each hunting for a tow, each trying to avoid being the one punching a hole in the air.
Antonelli predicted that top speeds will “flat-line” on the straights rather than tail off sharply once battery deployment runs out, and believes the situation will be “better than many expected”.
For Hamilton and Ferrari, that nuance matters. A more complex energy picture could blunt some of Mercedes’ raw power advantage and give the red cars more room to fight, especially if they can qualify well and control the race from the front.
The stage is set: Ferrari with a fresh engine and a restless crowd at their back, Mercedes with the fastest man in the championship starting from the rear. If Hamilton can turn this “step forward” into a Monza victory in red, the balance of this season’s story might start to feel very different.
