Quite the difference a day makes. The tone emanating from Ferrari on Saturday was one of total desolation; Lewis Hamilton declared himself “gutted and devastated” after qualifying a mere 12th on the grid, with his teammate just one place ahead. However, come Sunday night, it was difficult to wipe the smile off Hamilton’s face in the Imola media pen.
Of course, if you’d told most of the 242,000 fans – the vast majority decked in red – present earlier in the weekend that fourth and sixth would be the finishing positions for Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, celebrations would have been scant. Hamilton’s first Ferrari race in Italy, in an upgraded car, was meant to mark a season-defining turning point. As such, no silver bullet has been found.
But it has made the road to rejuvenation all the more obvious. Blindingly, in fact. Hamilton’s stellar drive from 12th to fourth – albeit with the benefit of two well-timed safety car interludes – resulted in joyous scenes on the Rivazza hill afterwards. It was the Scuderia’s best result of the season so far.
For Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, under immense pressure in the Italian media overnight, there was some respite. With pressure mounting, there was some space to breathe. Operation damage limitation had been fulfilled.
“We were able to react today and straighten out, at least in part, a weekend that could have been decidedly negative,” Vasseur said. “Our race pace was strong from start to finish. We had a good strategy and the pit stops were well executed.
“Of course, there is some frustration because if we had qualified better, we could have finished higher up the order. It’s been three or four races now where we have seen this difference between qualifying and race-pace.
“We must work on that.”
For Hamilton, this is not a new narrative. His torrid record over one-lap last year resulted in his worst-performing qualifying campaign in 18 F1 campaigns. Over 24 grands prix, Mercedes teammate George Russell beat Hamilton 19-5 on a Saturday. This year, Leclerc leads the way 6-1.
It means, at least in the last few years, that the seven-time world champion is accustomed to unruffled recovery drives. As he acknowledged post-race, it brings out the best in him. But titles are not won from the midfield.
“I’ve always loved when you’re fighting from further back and coming through, that’s how I started off as a kid,” he said. Arguably, Hamilton’s best-ever victory came at Interlagos in 2021, where he rose from dead last to top spot.
“That’s always such a better feeling than starting first and finishing first. An absolutely mega race and so many positives to take from it.”
But while Hamilton saved Ferrari’s blushes with his 63-lap amelioration, Leclerc was left reeling, having lost out in the safety car period. Involved in a skirmish late on with Williams’s Alex Albon, Leclerc was forced to give up two places in the closing laps. Asked for his chances of defending his crown in Monaco next week, the Monegasque’s response was unequivocal: “No.”
And no wonder. Ferrari have secured just one top-three qualifying finish, Leclerc in Bahrain, and just one podium, Leclerc in Saudi Arabia, so far this season. They are the fourth-quickest team. And ignoring his sprint race pole and win in China, Hamilton has not qualified higher than fifth, with an overall average of 8.7. No wonder a podium has been out of reach.
“We have just got to unlock the potential in qualifying,” the 40-year-old said, with the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri now 93 points. “If we had qualified better, we would have been fighting for a podium.
“I’ve got some ideas that I’m going to try and apply next week [in Monaco]. People been a little bit reluctant to do it, because we’ve had lots of other things to focus on, but I’m hoping next week we can find something to unlock some more performance.
“Our car is generally good at high speed, okay in medium and not as strong as others in low. Obviously, the next race [in Monaco] is all low, so we’ll see how we get on.”
Yet as F1 heads to its traditional crown jewel race around the tight twists of Monte-Carlo – with the added roll-of-a-dice element this year of a mandatory two pit-stops – the most telling statistic of Ferrari’s two-decade-long demise emerged post-race.
With Max Verstappen’s terrific victory, Red Bull now lead the way for the most wins this century. With their 124th triumph, in their 400th race, the energy drinks outfit are now out on their own, beyond the numbers of Michael Schumacher and the rest.
That is some record for Red Bull boss Christian Horner, in an understandably gleeful mood as the sun went down on Sunday. It is also indicative of the long-lasting issues at Ferrari, stretching back before the tenure of Vasseur, and the scale of the challenge Hamilton and Leclerc are looking to overcome this season and next. The prancing horse weight of history is heavy.
