Ferrari's Engine Upgrade at Monza: Can Hamilton Finally Win?

Lewis Hamilton walked into Monza this week knowing exactly what the numbers say. Ferrari have found time on the straights. Just not enough.

“It’s a step forward,” he said of the upgraded power unit bolted into the red car for the Italian Grand Prix. “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.”

Ferrari have chosen their home race to deploy the second and final engine upgrade of the season, gambling that a little extra horsepower in a straight-line will finally marry up with what is already the sharpest car in the corners. On balance, the SF-24 has been the class of the field through the twisty stuff. On the straights, it has been paying a heavy tax.

Hamilton put a number on it.

“Until this point of the year, even last race, we were losing 0.4secs a lap on the straights. We have carried that deficit,” he said. “Every little helps.”

At Monza, “every little” can decide everything.

Ferrari, Monza and a missing chapter

Hamilton has already won once this season. So has Charles Leclerc. Yet the Briton still trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 59 points, a gap that underlines how relentlessly Mercedes have scored even when they have not dominated.

To change that, Hamilton knows Ferrari must be perfect from Friday to Sunday.

“To win this weekend, the whole collective has to come together. Everything has to flow from the beginning,” he said.

For all his wins, all his titles, Hamilton has never done the one thing that defines a Ferrari driver’s legend: win at Monza in red. That gap in his record hangs over the weekend.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

It is classic Monza: raw speed on track, raw emotion off it.

Antonelli’s penalty reshapes the grid

Ferrari’s chances are helped by a rare gift from the rulebook. Antonelli will start from the back after exceeding his allocation of power unit components, a consequence of the reliability problems that have dogged his season despite his points lead.

Mercedes always knew a penalty was coming. They have chosen to take the hit here, where a fresh engine can stretch its legs on the long straights and where overtaking, historically, is less of a nightmare than at tighter venues.

Hamilton understands exactly why.

“There is big gap between the top teams and the rest,” he said. “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.

“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.”

George Russell will face a similar penalty later in the year, most likely in Azerbaijan, as Mercedes manage their engine pool across a long, attritional campaign.

Antonelli, for his part, is trying to turn the setback into an opportunity to breathe.

“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. 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.”

He knows the car. He knows the straight-line speed. He also knows Monza is rarely a procession.

A different kind of endurance: managing energy at Monza

This year’s Italian Grand Prix will not just be about top speed. It will be about how long drivers can stay on the limit before the hybrid systems give up their electric boost.

Monza is “energy starved”, as Antonelli put it. The long full-throttle sections mean the cars spend a larger percentage of the lap without battery deployment, with fewer heavy braking zones to recharge. That changes how drivers race, how they defend, and how they attack.

“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,” Antonelli said.

Drivers are braced for a strange rhythm: long periods at high speed, then a plateau as the battery runs out, with slipstreaming becoming a weapon and a necessity. Expect trains of cars, each trying to time their run, each trying to save just enough energy for the decisive move.

Antonelli predicted that top speeds will “flat-line” on the straights but not fall away dramatically, and that the situation would be “better than many expected”. That suggests less of a farce, more of a tactical puzzle.

For Hamilton and Ferrari, the equation is simpler. The new engine has cut into that 0.4-second straight-line deficit, but not erased it. The corners remain their strength. The tifosi remain their fuel.

This weekend, in the heat and noise of Monza, they have a faster car, a wounded but dangerous title leader starting from the back, and a seven-time world champion chasing a chapter his career still lacks.

The upgrade is only a step. The question is whether it is big enough to carry him to the podium that matters most in red.