Within the span of 24 hours, the sensation round Lewis Hamilton’s first race for Ferrari on Italian soil did a full 180-degree flip.
Saturday at Imola was doom and gloom: Charles Leclerc and Hamilton missed Q3, qualifying eleventh and twelfth, respectively. Seven different groups managed higher; solely Haas and Sauber didn’t get both of their automobiles in entrance of the Ferraris. Doing that anyplace is unhealthy information for Ferrari, however doing it on the circuit little greater than 50 miles from its Maranello manufacturing unit is nearly unacceptable. On Saturday, Hamilton advised the media he was “devastated.”
A day later, his temper was utterly completely different. Hamilton had completed fourth, with an alternate tire technique and a few good calls from the Ferrari pit wall round a late security automobile interval serving to to vault him up the order.
For Hamilton, the consequence and the turnaround surpassed his dash race victory on the Chinese language Grand Prix, the second spherical of the season.
“China was fairly nice, however I’d say this one is healthier,” he mentioned on Sunday. “I’ve all the time cherished once you’re preventing from additional again and coming by means of. That is how I began off as a child, that is all the time such a greater feeling than beginning first and ending first. However positively, completely mega race. There are such a lot of positives to take from it.”
Simply what are these positives?
“There are tons,” Hamilton continued. “One is the technique. It was actually improbable. They made nice calls. Did not put a foot unsuitable there.
“The automobile actually helped. China, I felt actually aligned with the automobile after which the one different time is simply at the moment. I felt that actual synergy. I feel the setup was nice. I feel we made a little bit of an enchancment in our efficiency. We simply bought knocked out of qualifying. If we had certified [well] at the moment, we might have been preventing for a podium, which is one thing we did not assume can be doable.”
It was an excellent fightback, however some perspective is required earlier than anybody can get too carried away.
This was nonetheless an eye-opening weekend, and Ferrari by no means felt like a podium contender on pure tempo. Hamilton is been vulnerable to dramatic shifts in tone primarily based on his most up-to-date consequence, and as he mentioned, his race carried the feel-good issue of carving by means of the order within the closing phases.
The protection automobile had been fantastically timed for him, however horrible for others. Its deployment had Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso bemoaning he’s the “unluckiest driver within the f—ing world.”
Hamilton’s teammate Leclerc’s race was additionally undone by the security automobile. His choice to not pit for contemporary tires left him uncovered to the charging Williams of Alex Albon late on. Leclerc, the long-suffering face of Ferrari’s System 1 workforce, painted a way more measured determine in regards to the workforce’s weekend on Sunday night when reflecting on his grand prix.
“It was one of many races the place you have to race with the guts and you have to put the elbows out a bit bit,” Leclerc advised Sky Sports activities F1. “I do know that when it is like this, you go very a lot on the restrict, generally a bit bit over. However if you find yourself beginning P11, I imply, as a driver, I simply can’t settle for the state of affairs we’re in.”
It should be a painfully acquainted feeling for Leclerc. Twelve months in the past, he had completed behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on the Imola podium, however this yr he left the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari 85 factors behind championship chief Oscar Piastri. Ferrari is fourth within the constructors’ championship, 165 factors behind Piastri’s McLaren workforce.
It wasn’t imagined to be this manner.
Ferrari got here into the yr contemporary off the heels of working McLaren all the best way to the road in final yr’s constructors’ championship, and buoyed by the arrival of Hamilton. This was imagined to be a championship-contending automobile, however now 2025 appears little greater than a salvage job. Frustratingly for all concerned, there’s nonetheless efficiency ready to be unlocked beneath the darker shade of purple the automobile is working this yr.
When requested when the SF-25 comes alive, Leclerc mentioned: “Within the race, however earlier than that, it isn’t there. We do not perceive why but.”
That solely compounds the frustration, as final yr the workforce appeared to have lastly unlocked a elementary understanding of the automobile’s candy spot. Leclerc spearheaded Ferrari’s resurgence within the second half of the season because the workforce emerged from the summer time break a much more formidable outfit.
The important thing to the turnaround was how Ferrari had managed to seek out that excellent stability — robust in qualifying however, crucially, stronger in races — to present Leclerc, arguably F1’s finest driver over one lap, the right baseline to problem for victory each weekend. In earlier years, Ferrari’s automobiles had been nice qualifiers, however had too usually light within the race, prompting errors from driver and pit wall (each already beneath immense stress) in a bid to compensate. Leclerc’s wins in Monza and Austin, and Carlos Sainz’s victory on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix, gave a tantalizing glimpse at what the workforce might obtain with a wonderfully all-round automobile.
That candy spot seems to have been misplaced this yr. Hamilton has repeatedly referenced adjustments made after his dash victory in China, which have come at the price of efficiency. Tire warm-up seems to be the principle space the workforce is unable to get its head round this yr.
“It is clear that we try to extract the very best from the automobile on Saturday,” workforce principal Frédéric Vasseur mentioned after the race at Imola. “The final two weekends, we did not enhance on the [last tire] set in quali. There’s a little bit of frustration for us. For certain, we have to put all our effort on this.”
The tifosi can maybe take consolation within the information that if an answer to Saturday’s disappearing tempo might be discovered rapidly, Ferrari may be capable to flip a nook fairly dramatically.
With qualifying a priority, Monaco’s race will present an enormous check. The snaky and slim Monte Carlos circuit is known for its qualifying having an outsize affect on the race — one thing unlikely to vary, regardless of the newly mandated two-stop technique launched to enhance the spectacle.
Leclerc famously broke his hometown curse on the Monaco race final yr however shouldn’t be anticipating a repeat this time round.
“A really troublesome weekend,” was his evaluation of what to anticipate this weekend within the Principality. “I feel Monaco is exposing fairly just a few weaknesses of our automobile, so I do not know, however there are additionally many issues that you simply can’t actually count on. The quantity of threat you absorb qualifying, the automobile is about up in a really completely different method, so I hope we might be stunned.”
