Hamilton Criticizes Ferrari’s Delayed Support as Championship Hopes Dwindle After Monza Incident

The Italian Grand Prix proved an unfortunate setting for intra-team friction, as Lewis Hamilton finished a distant sixth after Charles Leclerc forced him into the gravel at the first corner on the opening lap. Leclerc subsequently crashed heavily into the Parabolica barriers at the end of the second lap, triggering a red flag. The weekend’s outcome saw Hamilton concede further ground to Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell in the drivers’ standings, while Ferrari fell 122 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.

Antonelli now leads Russell by 66 points and holds a 76-point advantage over Hamilton, while Leclerc sits fifth, 112 points adrift of the championship leader.

Hamilton has repeatedly questioned Ferrari’s strategic execution this season, particularly regarding team orders when drivers are on divergent strategies. At the Dutch Grand Prix, he believed a podium finish was squandered when the team hesitated to move Leclerc aside while Hamilton was lapping faster on fresher tyres.

The seven-time champion clearly feels he warranted priority given his proximity to the Mercedes pair compared to Leclerc, but acknowledges that window has now closed.

Hamilton spoke frankly about his championship prospects after finishing sixth in Monza

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“I think from today, we’ve just lost so much ground to them [Mercedes] on points,” he told media including Motorsport.com at Monza.

“It’s far too late for those decisions to come. It’s many, many weeks too late.

“All I can do is just try and turn up. I’ll get up tomorrow morning and I’ll give it my best. Ultimately today, I feel massively gutted for the tifosi, who showed up for us today.

“The guys back at the factory, who really, really are giving it everything. You know yesterday we didn’t really execute that well. I think the same today.

“It’s tough. I’m giving it everything I can, but sometimes it’s just not enough. You need all the other stuff to come together.”

While Ferrari may not have possessed the outright pace to challenge for victory at Monza, the team made the task of maximizing its potential unnecessarily difficult. Throughout qualifying, the Scuderia struggled to coordinate its drivers to provide the crucial slipstream effect essential at this high-speed circuit, nearly resulting in Hamilton’s elimination in Q2.

On his first Q3 run, Hamilton was released from the pits too late to benefit from a tow. He did secure a draft from Leclerc on his final attempt and lined up directly behind his teammate on the second row, promoted to third and fourth following Oscar Piastri’s grid penalty for impeding.

At the start, Hamilton appeared to gain the inside line into Turn 1 and maintained the advantage through Turn 2, only for Leclerc to push him wide onto the gravel. Leclerc retained third place while Hamilton plummeted to tenth.

Diversion via the gravel dropped Hamilton to P10

Photo by: Getty Images

After the race, Leclerc characterized the clash as a shared error, stating they “went too far.” Hamilton disagreed, noting that while the inside line into the first part of the chicane naturally forces a driver wide onto the outside for the subsequent left-hander, he had established clear position.

“I was ahead in Turn 2. By the apex, I was ahead. There was no ‘we’ in it.

“Look, I don’t race dirty. I’ve always raced clean and fairly and always left space.

“I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy. I stand by that and all I can talk about is on my side. You have to speak to Fred [Vasseur, team principal] about the other side and decisions that are taken there.

“Ultimately it comes from the top. It trickles down, decisions. It starts with Fred.

“There’s only so much you can say, so much you can push and shout from the mountain top. Yesterday, I said we’ve got to look at how we communicate. If we continue to travel the same path, we get the same result.

“We keep getting the same result. We’ve got to change things because it’s not helping us move forward. I think they’re receptive to it and we’ll take it offline over the next, probably not next week, but particularly after the next race, to try and look at how we can procedurally make things different so that the same thing can’t happen.

“I think the guys in the factory are doing a really great job. We’re not executing as cleanly as well as we can. Easily not as well as now the other teams are. But we were at some points in the season.”

The challenge of enforcing team orders at Ferrari is complicated by Leclerc’s standing within the organization; his management played a key role in Vasseur’s appointment, having advocated for regime change during Mattia Binotto’s tenure. However, when teammates collide, the repercussions extend beyond a single race result to the drivers’ championship. While the constructors’ title may hold less emotional resonance for fans, its final order dictates the distribution of commercial revenues, meaning on-track indiscipline carries direct financial consequences.

“I think it comes down to rules of engagement,” said Hamilton.

“When I was at Mercedes, we had a written rule of engagement. We never really had it too bad. Maybe moments with me and Nico [Rosberg] a couple of times. But more often than not it was good.

“Here, there are no rules.”

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