Within a 24-hour period, the atmosphere surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s first race for Ferrari on Italian soil underwent a radical change.
On Saturday in Imola, the situation was bleak. Both Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were out of Q3, qualifying in 11th and 12th positions respectively. Seven other teams achieved better results. Only Haas and Sauber failed to place any of their cars ahead of the Ferraris. This is bad news for Ferrari anywhere, but at a circuit just over 80 kilometers from their Maranello factory, it’s almost unacceptable. Hamilton expressed his “devastation” to the media.
However, the next day, Hamilton’s mood was completely different. He finished in fourth place, thanks to an alternative tire strategy and brilliant decisions by the Ferrari team, especially during a late safety car period that boosted him up the order.
For Hamilton, the result and the change surpassed his victory in the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, the second round of the season.
China was pretty great, but I would say this one is better. I’ve always loved it when you fight from behind and move forward. That’s how I started as a kid, it’s always a better feeling than starting first and finishing first. But definitely, an absolutely incredible race. There are many positives to take from it.
Lewis Hamilton
What are those positive aspects?
Hamilton continued: “There are many. One is the strategy. It was really fantastic. They made great decisions. They made no mistakes. The car really helped. In China, I felt very aligned with the car and then the only other time is today. I felt that real synergy. I think the setup was great. I think we improved our performance a little bit. We just got knocked out of qualifying. If we had qualified [well] today, we would have been fighting for a podium, something we didn’t think was possible.”
It was a good comeback, but perspective is needed before getting carried away.
This was a revealing weekend, and Ferrari never seemed a podium contender in terms of pure pace. Hamilton is prone to dramatic shifts in tone based on his most recent result, and as he said, his race had the feeling of joy of making his way through in the final stages.
The safety car arrived at the perfect moment for Hamilton, but it was terrible for others. Its deployment made Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso lament being the “unluckiest driver in the world”.
His teammate Leclerc’s race was also affected by the safety car. His decision not to pit for new tires left him exposed to the attack of Alex Albon’s Williams in the final stages. Leclerc, the suffering face of Ferrari in Formula 1, offered a much more measured perspective on the team’s weekend on Sunday night as he reflected on his grand prix.
It was one of those races where you have to run with your heart and you have to get your elbows out a bit. I know that when it’s like that, you go to the limit, sometimes a little over. But when you start P11, I mean, as a driver, I just can’t accept the situation we’re in.
Charles Leclerc
It must be a painfully familiar feeling for Leclerc. Twelve months ago, he had finished behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on the Imola podium, but this year he left the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari 85 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Ferrari is fourth in the constructors’ championship, 165 points behind Piastri’s McLaren team.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Ferrari arrived at the year after having competed with McLaren until the end in last year’s constructors’ championship, and encouraged by the arrival of Hamilton. This was supposed to be a car with championship possibilities, but now 2025 seems like little more than a recovery job. Frustratingly for everyone involved, there is still performance waiting to be unlocked under the darkest shadow of red that the car is using this year.
When asked when the SF-25 would come to life, Leclerc said: “In the race, but before that, it’s not there. We still don’t understand why.”
That only compounds the frustration, as last year the team seemed to have finally unlocked a fundamental understanding of the car’s sweet spot. Leclerc spearheaded Ferrari’s resurgence in the second half of the season, as the team emerged from the summer break as a much more formidable outfit.
The key to the change was how Ferrari had managed to find that perfect balance: strong in qualifying but, crucially, stronger in the races, to give Leclerc, arguably the best driver in F1 over one lap, the perfect base to fight for victory every weekend. In previous years, Ferrari’s cars had been great qualifiers, but too often they had faded in the race, leading to driver and pit wall errors (both already under immense pressure) in an attempt to compensate. Leclerc’s wins at Monza and Austin, and Carlos Sainz’s victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix, offered a tantalizing glimpse of what the team could achieve with a perfectly complete car.
That sweet spot seems to have been lost this year. Hamilton has repeatedly referenced the changes made after his sprint race victory in China, which have come at a cost to performance. Tire warm-up appears to be the main area where the team can’t figure it out this year.
“It’s clear that we are trying to extract the best from the car on Saturday,” said team boss Frédéric Vasseur after the race in Imola. “The last two weekends, we didn’t improve on the [last set of tires] in qualifying. There is a bit of frustration for us. For sure, we have to put all our effort into this.”
The tifosi may take solace in the knowledge that if a solution can be found quickly to the pace that disappears on Saturday, Ferrari could be capable of a dramatic turnaround.
With qualifying a concern, the Monaco race will provide a great test. The winding and narrow Monte Carlo circuit is famous for its qualifying having a huge impact on the race, something that is unlikely to change, despite the mandatory two-stop strategy introduced to improve the spectacle.
Leclerc broke his home curse at the Monaco race last year, but he does not expect it to be repeated this time.
“A very difficult weekend”, was his assessment of what is expected this weekend in the Principality. “I think Monaco is exposing quite a few weaknesses of our car, so I don’t know, but there are also many things you really can’t expect. The amount of risk you take in qualifying, the car is set up in a very different way, so I hope we’ll be surprised.”
