Ferrari left its home Grand Prix with the crowd still singing, but the soundtrack inside Maranello is far less romantic.
A sixth place for Lewis Hamilton, a wrecked car for Charles Leclerc after barely two laps, and a Mercedes victory from 19th on the grid for Kimi Antonelli. On Ferrari’s own soil. On a power track. In front of the Tifosi.
No wonder the alarms are ringing.
A Home Race That Turned Into an Inquest
This was supposed to be a statement weekend. Hamilton and Leclerc lined up third and fourth, the red cars poised to attack. Instead, Ferrari’s race began to unravel almost immediately.
Into the opening chicane, both drivers went side by side. Hamilton emerged on the gravel, forced wide and bleeding positions. Moments later, before anyone had settled into a rhythm, Leclerc’s race ended in the barriers at Curva Alboreto on lap two. One car out. The other sent to the back foot.
Hamilton dragged the surviving Ferrari back to sixth over 53 laps, but the damage – sporting and political – was already done.
“I was ahead in Turn 2, by the apex I was ahead,” Hamilton said afterwards. “So, there’s no ‘we’. It was very bad for the team and put us way back in positions.”
From there, his race became a salvage mission layered with frustration over strategy and tyres.
“I just tried to reset and I was like, OK, try and catch up and then obviously we had to stop and I think we put the wrong tyres on probably,” he added. The disappointment ran deeper than one afternoon’s missteps. “From today we’ve just lost so much ground… It’s far too late for those decisions to come. It’s many, many weeks too late.”
He reserved his most emotional words for the people in red around him.
“I feel massively gutted for the Tifosi who show up for us today. The guys back at the factory really are giving it everything… Yesterday we didn’t really execute that well. And I did the same today. It’s tough because we give it everything I can and sometimes it’s just not enough because we need all the other stuff to go well.”
On a day when Ferrari needed clarity and control, it got chaos and recrimination.
Leadership Questions Back on the Table
Monza has a habit of exposing truths, and this edition has revived a familiar debate: who is really in charge at Ferrari, and how?
According to reporting from The Race, senior figures inside the team were deeply unimpressed by how the weekend was handled. That doesn’t yet translate into a decision on Fred Vasseur’s future, but it explains why a team principal who only last year signed a renewed multi-year deal suddenly finds his position under the microscope.
This isn’t just about one clumsy opening lap. The Dutch Grand Prix and Monza are being held up internally as case studies – races where the lack of a firm internal hierarchy between Hamilton and Leclerc, and the absence of a sharp, unified race management, cost Ferrari dearly.
The sense of drift isn’t limited to driver handling. There are concerns over the power unit, too. Ferrari’s second ADUO upgrade was supposed to close the gap to Mercedes, especially on a power-hungry circuit like Monza. Instead, the silver cars – and Antonelli in particular – simply drove away.
From 19th to victory in a Mercedes on Ferrari’s home straight. That image will haunt Maranello all winter.
The Race has also highlighted Ferrari’s sluggish response to the revised start procedure as another red flag. On a day when every detail mattered, the team looked reactive rather than proactive.
Vasseur Under Scrutiny – But Who Comes Next?
All of this funnels straight back to Vasseur. The Frenchman was brought in to steady a volatile ship and to build a long-term project around clearer structures and smarter race operations. Yet, as the pressure rises, familiar names are circling around the top job.
Antonello Coletta, who oversees Ferrari’s World Endurance Championship programme, has long been mentioned as a possible Formula 1 leader. He knows the Ferrari ecosystem, has managed high-stakes racing projects, and carries internal credibility.
Christian Horner’s name refuses to go away either. The Race again cites him as a potential option, despite reports that he previously turned down an approach from chairman John Elkann for the Ferrari role. The fact he remains part of the succession chatter says plenty about the scale of Ferrari’s ambition – and its uncertainty.
In Italy, the tone has sharpened. Quoted by Corriere della Sera, the mood from Maranello and Turin is stark:
“In Maranello, and especially in Turin, they’re thinking about it. We can’t go on like this. Even Fred Vasseur has understood that, despite a recently renewed contract, his future at the helm of the team is uncertain. In Maranello, the pressures are many, and they come from on high, which could trigger a change. Not right away, we need to prepare for it. But Monza could have revolutionary effects.”
The same publication called it “a major turning point at Ferrari” and underlined the paradox at the heart of the situation: “There is no Plan B beyond the French manager. Vasseur’s Ferrari is under scrutiny. By Elkann’s Ferrari, which can no longer pretend nothing is wrong.”
That’s the crux. Ferrari is scrutinising Ferrari.
Monza was supposed to be a celebration of progress, a chance to show that the long rebuild had teeth. Instead, it left the Scuderia staring at a brutal question: if this is what home looks like, how much longer can they afford to wait for their revolution?
