When Lewis Hamilton announced his shocking decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari, starting with the 2025 Formula 1 season, everyone around the sport circled this weekend on the calendar.
Monza. The Temple of Speed. The ancestral home of the Scuderia. His first race in front of the Tifosi at the legendary circuit.
Yet, while expectations were high for Hamilton heading into the season, those dreams have not matched with reality. As Hamilton and Ferrari enter this week’s Italian Grand Prix, where they will pay tribute to Niki Lauda, the seven-time Drivers’ Champion has yet to reach a grand prix podium. He sits sixth in the Drivers’ Championship standings with 109 points, 45 points ahead of Kimi Antonelli (who replaced him at Mercedes) and 42 points behind his new teammate, Charles Leclerc.
To complicate matters, Hamilton begins his first Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari on the back foot, having been hit with a five-place grid penalty for failing to slow under double yellow flags ahead of last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Speaking with the media on Thursday in Monza, Hamilton talked at length about his season.
“I don’t know,” said Hamilton in the FIA Press Conference when asked how the week will go. “I mean, I’m still obviously in my first year with the team, and so every weekend is the first time driving this car at that track. The approach is different from my previous experiences. When you go to different places, the set-up’s different. So it’s always new, which I’m enjoying at the moment.
“I think Ferrari’s journey has gone pretty well in the past years. Obviously, they won here last year with a great strategy and a great drive from Charles. I’m really keen to see how the car works here. We’re definitely learning from weekend to weekend, loads of positives to take from the last, so I think we just have to keep building on that.”
Hamilton addressed the penalty from Zandvoort, noting he was “shocked” at the decision after watching the replays.
“I don’t know how the other drivers felt about the decisions from the last race, but when I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, I was really shocked,” described Hamilton. “But it is what it is. It’s obviously not black and white. If you look at the report, I did lift, but to their liking, not enough. To get the penalty and penalty points is pretty hardcore. But I learn from it. There’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forward. It’s going to be challenging this weekend.
“Qualifying is already so close between us all. Just getting into Q3 is tough, getting into the top five is very tough. And then on top of that, to be set back five places is not great when you’re going into your first Monza GP with Ferrari. But it gives me more to fight for, and I’m very motivated to make up those places regardless.”
But even while this season has not been a struggle, it has been filled with “pinch myself” moments for Hamilton. Those include earlier this week, when he and Leclerc were mobbed by the Tifosi in Milan.
“Yeah, yesterday was such a unique experience,” said Hamilton of the visit to Milan.
”I think already from yesterday morning, I got to Maranello. And when you walk in and then see the Ferrari logo, I still have to pinch myself. It’s really so unique. There are people outside the factory always. I’ve never seen fans outside of a factory before in any of my years, and you see that every single time. There’s just such a positive energy, clearly so much love for this brand and what it means to people.
“To be in Milan, really in the heart of it all yesterday and seeing the fans and just how passionate they were… wow. It was intense but very, very positive. I really tried to harness all that good energy that they gave us.”
We’ll see if Hamilton can harness that good energy for his first Ferrari grand prix podium this week, at the Temple of Speed.
