Ferrari Aim for Victory at Monza with Engine Upgrade

Lewis Hamilton can feel it. Not just the roar of the tifosi building for Ferrari’s home race, but the sense that Monza might finally hand him something he has never had before: a victory in red on the team’s own sacred ground.

He knows the odds. He also knows the numbers.

Ferrari bring power to the Temple of Speed

Ferrari arrive at Monza armed with the second and final permitted engine upgrade of the season, a strategic roll of the dice aimed squarely at turning home advantage into something more tangible than flags and flares.

Their car has been razor sharp through the corners this year, often the class of the field in the twisty stuff. The problem has been the straights. On pure top speed, they’ve been paying for it.

“Every little helps,” Hamilton said. “Until this point of the year, even last race, we were losing 0.4secs a lap on the straights. We have carried that deficit. This is a step forward. It is not the whole amount we need but we knew that was the case. I strongly believe we have what it takes to win.”

The upgrade, then, is not a silver bullet. It’s a lifeline. Enough to close part of the gap, not erase it.

Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both have one win each this season, but the championship picture tells a harsher story. Hamilton trails Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 59 points. If Ferrari want to drag themselves into a real title fight, races like this cannot slip away.

“To win this weekend, the whole collective has to come together. Everything has to flow from the beginning,” Hamilton said. No talk of damage limitation. No talk of settling.

A first in Ferrari red

Hamilton has won almost everywhere and almost everything. Yet Monza, in a Ferrari, remains uncharted territory.

“There is a first ahead of me, in the sense of if I was to win I go into new territory winning for the first time in Ferrari at Monza. It would be phenomenal,” he said.

The pressure is obvious, and he doesn’t pretend otherwise.

“The pressure's high. You want to do it for the team. Many of them will come to this race. The tifosi come out in huge numbers with a passion that's unmatched.”

Then there is a more personal layer. “And my mum's here. I don't think she's been to Monza, and certainly not with Ferrari. I wanted her to experience this and bring any lucky dust she can bring.”

Ferrari’s weekend is never just a race at Monza. It’s theatre, ritual, expectation. This time, though, there is also opportunity.

Antonelli starts from the back – but not out of the fight

The biggest boost to Ferrari’s hopes doesn’t come from their own garage, but from the one painted silver.

Kimi Antonelli will start from the rear of the grid after Mercedes chose Monza as the moment to take an engine penalty, exceeding his allocation of four power units for the season. Earlier reliability issues made that penalty unavoidable at some stage; Mercedes have simply picked their battleground.

Hamilton understands exactly why.

“There is big gap between the top teams and the rest. Kimi will start from the back but with the power he has, and the performance he has, he should slide through that pack pretty easy and it's probably why they chose this race to do that,” he said.

“So achieving eighth or sixth should be relatively easy. We have to focus on maximising our weekend and try and take the energy from the tifosi to hopefully push us to the front.”

Mercedes’ calculation is cold and clear: new power at a circuit dominated by long straights, while keeping their engine pool fresher for the run-in. Team-mate George Russell will take his own penalty later, most likely in Azerbaijan.

Antonelli, leading the championship yet starting last at Ferrari’s home race, cuts a relaxed figure rather than a rattled one.

“I am very much looking forward to this weekend despite starting from the back. I will be able to enjoy it more than I did previously and hopefully we will still be able to have a good race,” he said.

“In some ways it helps to release pressure, although I would very much rather fight for pole and start at the front. It makes me a bit more relaxed going into the weekend.”

He knows Monza offers a route back through the field if the car is quick enough.

“I think this track can be very good for us but we have to take into account that McLaren, Ferrari, even Red Bull can be good this weekend,” Antonelli said. “There are other tracks where it is possible to overtake but this one is very energy starved and there are a lot of places where you can race differently and it gives us the best chance to climb through the field.”

Energy games and a tactical slipstream battle

Antonelli’s “energy starved” description goes to the heart of this year’s Monza challenge.

With today’s hybrid engines, battery deployment and recovery shape the rhythm of a lap as much as raw horsepower. At Monza, the long straights and heavy braking zones leave the power units without battery assistance for a larger percentage of the lap than at most venues. There are fewer corners and fewer big braking events to harvest energy.

Drivers expect that to turn the race into a tactical grind. Managing deployment, picking the right moments to attack, and living in the slipstream will matter as much as outright pace.

Slipstreaming is set to become a defining feature of both qualifying and the race, as drivers hunt for a tow to save energy and slice through the air. The risk, of course, is traffic chaos in qualifying, with everyone backing up for the perfect run.

Antonelli anticipates an unusual speed profile: the cars will hit their top speed and then sit there, rather than dropping away dramatically once the battery boost runs out. “Flat-line” speed, rather than a traditional surge and fade. He expects it to be “better than many expected” – less catastrophic, more manageable.

That still leaves a weekend likely to frustrate as much as thrill from the cockpit, as drivers juggle energy, track position and the ever-present threat of being a sitting duck on the straights.

A title race meets a homecoming

So the stage is set. Ferrari with a sharper engine but still chasing. Hamilton with a chance to carve a new line into his legacy. Leclerc hunting his own Monza story. Antonelli starting at the back yet armed with enough pace to turn damage limitation into something far more dangerous.

The tifosi will demand a Ferrari win. The championship may demand something else entirely.