Italian F1 media call for 'DRASTIC measures' despite Hamilton Ferrari comeback

Lewis Hamilton

Italian media call for 'DRASTIC measures' despite Hamilton Ferrari comeback

The Italian media were unimpressed with Ferrari at the Imola Grand Prix

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 19 May 2025 17:58

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s comeback at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix failed to impress the Italian media, who called for 'drastic measures' after this weekend in Imola.

Ferrari endured a nightmare qualifying session on Saturday, where both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were knocked out of Q2 and started the race in P12 and P11 respectively.

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Both drivers managed to recover into the top 10 and secured a double points finish in Imola, with Hamilton all smiles after a P4 result and was clearly buoyed by the potential to chase for a podium.

The Italian media have been less forgiving however, with the press lamenting Ferrari’s poor qualifying showing in Imola, and demanding better than the results achieved so far in 2025.

Italian media refuse to congratulate Ferrari after Imola

Italian publication Corriere della Sera launched a scathing assessment of Ferrari’s performance in Imola, coupled with a lead image of a distraught fan decked in the team's merchandise.

The publication also criticised Hamilton and Leclerc’s interviews and their hope to improve, describing their reaction as ‘surreal’.

"These are ready-made phrases, packaged to mask a disappointment that consumes all patience, theirs and ours, at this point even a little surreal," they wrote.

"Nursery rhymes useful for keeping alive the hopes of a fan base in love to the point of forgetting every element that belongs to reality to rush, spend, rejoice until the moment in which the stopwatch, precisely, tells it right."

The publication continued to criticise the narrative around their comeback in Imola and hinted at more serious issues that need to be resolved at Ferrari.

"But yes, of course, let's think about a comeback, a recovery. Forza Ferrari. It's just that, given the situation we are in, instead of excuses and promises, we need providential seriousness," they continued.

"To make us understand that the top of the team, the technicians, are truly aware of the nature and extent of the problems. Complications and shortcomings that require adequate, precise, perhaps drastic measures. Sense of responsibility: it would be welcomed with human understanding as it is authoritative and honest, even in the midst of a storm."

AutoRacer also offered a downbeat assessment of Ferrari’s performances in 2025, and have even suggested their misery could continue into 2026.

"Reality says that, with the remodelled and delayed development program, the other teams are progressing and this creates greater headaches for the Scuderia," the publication surmised.

"The reaction to this resounding elimination in Q2 is precisely the explanation of why Ferrari CANNOT abandon the SF-25 and focus on 2026. A championship like this is not acceptable and is not reassuring for next year."

F1 RESULTS TODAY: Lewis Hamilton launches stellar comeback as McLaren beaten at Imola Grand Prix

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc Imola Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix