Hamilton’s Eighth Title Hopes Depend on Leclerc at Monza
Monza’s food court is heaving, a sea of red and the odd splash of papaya orange. In the middle of it all, two England shirts stand out. On the back: “Hamilton 44 Still I Rise”.
English? Not quite.
“We’re from the Netherlands,” say Anton and Tim, grinning. So, Verstappen fans then?
“Nooooo! And we never have been,” Tim fires back, laughing.
They are here for one man. Lewis Hamilton. Seven titles on the board, 59 points down on Kimi Antonelli in the championship, and still chasing that elusive eighth. From the outside, it looks like a mountain. For Anton, it’s just another climb.
“For sure, he can do it,” he says, without hesitation.
Tim leans in with the caveat every Hamilton fan quietly knows. “Maybe with a little bit of luck – but he needs Charles Leclerc.”
In other words, if Hamilton is to drag himself back into this fight, Ferrari’s home hero may have to become something else entirely: a willing number two.
“So, is this the point in the campaign where Leclerc has to become the number two driver to Hamilton?” he’s asked.
“Yes, for sure. At least for this season,” Tim replies. The loyalty to Hamilton is absolute. Even here. Even in Italy.
A Race No One Can Quite Read
Out on track, the script refuses to settle.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella stands in the Monza paddock and shrugs at the idea that anyone really knows how this afternoon will play out. “I’m actually not sure that it’s easy to think how it will unfold,” he admits.
On paper, Alpine and Pierre Gasly nailed qualifying. Pole position at Monza, in a car that looked no better than fifth-fastest on race pace on Friday, behind Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull. A stunning lap, a compromised field, and a grid that looks upside down.
The challenge now is not just speed. It’s brains.
Energy management looms over this race. The slipstream that made qualifying such a tactical mess will still be vicious down those long straights. Drivers will be tempted to hit boost, clear a slower car and break free. But boost isn’t free.
“If you start to play with the boost and overtake cars, you may get overtaken and you may start to lose overall the time in the race,” Stella explains. “But at the same time, if you're faster, you may want to pass.”
Use it and risk being a sitting duck a lap later. Save it and stare at a rear wing for 20 laps. That’s the Monza conundrum.
Strategy offers no comfort either. This is a one-stop race. Degradation should be low, the tyres closely matched in performance. George Russell, starting second in what looks like the fastest car over a stint, holds one key advantage: the only fresh set of medium tyres on the grid.
Ferrari, McLaren and Max Verstappen? They’ve all banked a new set of softs. Do they gamble on them at the start, go for track position and hang on? Or wait, stretch the mediums and unleash an all-out attack in a final soft-tyre sprint?
The F1 strategy model has its say: Russell to win from Oscar Piastri, with Leclerc and Gasly behind. History suggests taking that with a heavy pinch of salt. A green-flag pit stop costs about 24 seconds. Under a safety car, around 15. One mistimed caution, one slow stop, and the model goes in the bin.
Monza’s Paddock, Searing Heat and a Tennis Star
Away from the timing screens, the paddock is its own spectacle. The sun is relentless, the tarmac shimmering, and the pre-race access has become the hottest ticket in town.
Among the crush: Jannik Sinner. Five-time Grand Slam champion, local hero, and a self-confessed F1 fan. He’s not in New York for the US Open, so he’s come home instead, to soak in Monza.
The fight to get a photo with him is brutal. One fan, Julieta, emerges from the scrum beaming, her group clutching a precious shot.
“It was amazing!! My grandfather made me a fan of his. Unbelievable!!” she says, still buzzing.
Her heart, though, is split between red and silver.
“I really want Lewis Hamilton to win, I believe in that, but if Charles Leclerc wins, it would also be amazing.”
Hamilton, Leclerc, Ferrari, Mercedes – the emotional traffic here is complicated. Especially with one more name in the mix.
Antonelli: The Italian Who Drives in Silver
Kimi Antonelli arrives at his home race with the kind of billing Italy hasn’t heard in generations. A generational talent. The Italian who might finally end the 73-year wait for a home world champion.
He became the youngest-ever championship leader in March, after victory in Japan at 19 years, seven months and four days. He hasn’t let go of that lead since. Six wins this season. A 59-point cushion at the top. And yet, a twist.
He drives for Mercedes.
“Ferrari is my heart,” says Thomas, born and raised in Monza, standing trackside in red.
“It’s a religion,” adds Emanuele, at the grand prix with his daughter Matilde. “In Italy, we do support other teams and other sports, but there is only one Ferrari.”
In this country, Ferrari isn’t just a team. It is Formula 1. Locals joke that the Scuderia team principal is as important a figure as the Pope. The colours, the noise, the tifosi – they all orbit Maranello.
So how do you process an Italian star going wheel-to-wheel with Ferrari’s own Hamilton and Leclerc for race wins and the title, in silver, not red?
Julieta tries to square it. A win for Antonelli today, even from the back of the grid, “would be important for Monza because he’s Italian”. If he goes on to seal the championship this year, she thinks Ferrari “could maybe” offer their support.
Then she pauses.
“But I prefer Hamilton,” she says. Old loyalties die hard.
A Portrait, in Tyres and Memory
Hamilton’s presence here stretches beyond the grandstands and the title maths.
Somewhere in this paddock, a piece of art waits for him. French artist Constantin Vincent has spent 50 hours building a portrait of the seven-time champion from old karting tyres and acrylics, layered with fans’ memories and favourite phrases.
“There is ‘remember who you are mate’, his trophies, his number 44, ‘Hammertime’, ‘Still I Rise’,” says the 24-year-old, who walked away from finance three years ago to become a full-time artist.
He has already immortalised Rafa Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Now, with the help of the F1 fanbase, he is trying to get this tribute into Hamilton’s hands at Monza.
“The F1 community are very engaged, and a lot of people asked me to do [a portrait] of Hamilton,” he explains. “So, I take time to create and learn about the driver, and it was a pleasure to discover this guy and discover his values.”
It’s not just a picture. It’s a monument to a career, and to the people who’ve followed it.
Gasly’s Chess Move and Russell’s Opportunity
On Saturday, a different kind of duel set the tone.
Fifteen minutes before qualifying, Pierre Gasly sat down for a game of online chess with George Russell. Same paddock, same grid, very different battleground. Gasly won.
“I must say before the quali, I felt pretty confident,” he smiled later, “because I was picking piece by piece after piece.”
His performance coach, Ben Thorne, watched on.
“For a fun story, Ben told me, ‘OK, well, you're getting George here, but he's going to get you in a few minutes.’”
Gasly’s response, by his own admission, involved a swear word. But when the helmets went on, the Frenchman delivered the shock of the season: pole position for Alpine at Monza.
It is the first time a Frenchman has taken pole here since Jean Alesi in 1997. A lap that stunned the grid, and a start that will put him directly in front of Russell when the lights go out.
Behind them, the storylines stack up. Ferrari, off the pace in qualifying but still dangerous over a race distance. McLaren, lurking. Verstappen, always a threat. And somewhere in the pack, Antonelli, starting 19th with an engine penalty, trying to salvage points and keep his title cushion intact.
Heat, Noise and a Question Hanging Over Monza
Round 13. Italy. The calendar might say the end of summer, but Monza is boiling, on and off the track.
Gasly starts from the front. Russell, in the quickest race car on Friday’s numbers, has a chance to carve into his team-mate’s championship lead. Ferrari’s Hamilton and Leclerc will feel the weight of a nation and the pull of a title fight. McLaren and Verstappen will be ready to punish any mistake.
In the grandstands, some fans wear red, some wear orange, some wear “Hamilton 44 Still I Rise” across their backs. On the pit wall, strategy teams juggle tyre life, boost deployment and the threat of a safety car.
Somewhere in all of that, one question lingers over this old, echoing circuit.
If Hamilton is to rise again and turn this season on its head, will Monza be remembered as the day Charles Leclerc became his ally – or the day Kimi Antonelli announced that Italy’s future no longer belongs to Ferrari red?
