As ever in Monza, Ferrari’s scarlet-fuelled extravaganza which comes to town every September, the racing team of Italy are doing things a little bit differently. No stranger to audacious liveries and race suits, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will be sporting a flick of white on their cars and sea blue on their t-shirts over the next three days.
And in a remarkable turn of fate, this Sunday will be 50 years to the day since Niki Lauda claimed his first F1 world championship. Decked in Ferrari colours, the Austrian legend clinched the drivers’ crown at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday 7 September 1975, to the acclaim of thousands of passionate tifosi supporters in the grandstands.
It is that spirit, that sense of togetherness and camaraderie, united as one by the prancing horse logo, which Hamilton is looking to tap into this weekend, amid arguably the toughest period of his 19-year F1 career to date.
Of course, Hamilton shared a tremendous friendship with Lauda in the latter’s role as Mercedes’ non-executive chairman. It was Lauda who, alongside ex-Ferrari boss Ross Brawn, played a big role in Hamilton dramatically cutting ties with McLaren and gambling his peak years with the Silver Arrows. In hindsight, courtesy of six world championships, Hamilton’s call to follow Lauda’s guidance was his best-ever decision in Formula One.
Hamilton was distraught at Lauda’s passing in 2019 and, this weekend, he pays his own tribute with Lauda’s name adorned to the rear of his yellow helmet, as the 40-year-old attempts to jump-start any flicker of momentum over the final nine races of what, undeniably, has been a bruising debut campaign for the Scuderia.
Not the toughest, however, according to the man himself. “There’s been plenty of seasons which have felt difficult,” he said at the FIA press conference on Thursday. “2009-2012 was a low moment, 2022, 2023. But this one, I’m at a different place in my life.
“I’m really living the dream to race with Ferrari. I had the whole of last year to prepare for it and there were a lot of things you couldn’t foresee; there’s been a lot of adjustment. They’ve moved heaven and earth to accommodate me, and there’s been a cultural difference.
“But the harder it is, the better it can make you. It’s been tough for everyone in the team but it prepares us for better days, we’ll be stronger for the last six months and I’m excited for the uphill battle from here.”
Not unusually on media day this year, it was a surprisingly upbeat Hamilton, with the horror show that was the Dutch Grand Prix last Sunday seemingly a distant memory. On Wednesday evening, Hamilton and Leclerc were paraded in the centre of Milan to a sea of red, with the seven-time world champion – despite the daily fandom his fame invites – startled at the level of fandom in the Scuderia homeland.
“I still have to pinch myself, yesterday was such a unique experience,” he added. “There’s so much love for this brand and what it means for the people.”
That being said, in Formula One, no fan devotion can account for a lack of performance on track. Since Leclerc won here amid joyous scenes last year, Ferrari have won just two races: both came last October, once with Leclerc in Austin and once with former driver Carlos Sainz in Mexico.
Hamilton himself comes into his first Italian Grand Prix in Ferrari red after a torrid day to forget in Zandvoort. A crash forced him to retire before he was given a five-place grid penalty for this Sunday’s race for failing to slow down enough in the warm-up laps before the race.
For F1’s joint-record champion, it was a schoolboy error.
“I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, and I was really shocked to be honest,” Hamilton said.
“To get the penalty and penalty points is pretty hardcore but I'll learn from it. It will be hard this weekend. Qualifying is tight and to be set back five places is not great going into your first Monza Grand Prix with Ferrari.”
Yet Hamilton is not one to overly wallow in self-pity. “It gives me more to fight for,” he added. And while this year’s title is heading to McLaren – whether it be Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris – this weekend remains significant in Hamilton’s Ferrari career.
“Winning is one thing but out of losing, I always learned more for the future,” his former mentor Lauda once remarked. But without a podium this year, let alone a win, Hamilton badly needs a spark of some sort to reignite his Ferrari career beyond adulation in the terraces and where it truly matters most: on the racing tarmac.
“When I didn’t do well, he’d always say ‘give them hell’”, Hamilton said on Thursday, in reference to Lauda. “He was just such a fighter.”
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