Ferrari humiliated at Italian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton F1 title chances suffer knockout blow

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Australia, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Italian Grand Prix

Ferrari humiliated at Italian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton F1 title chances suffer knockout blow

Mercedes run rings around Ferrari

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Sunday 6 September 2026 17:55

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This was bad for Ferrari, really bad. Hoping for victory on home soil at the Italian Grand Prix, they instead got their scarlet pants pulled down.

They already lucked through qualifying, just surviving a Q2 exit to put them midfield to instead line up on the second row in third and fourth after penalties ahead of them.

Charles Leclerc was third, Lewis Hamilton fourth, only the weaker Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the inconsistent Mercedes George Russell in front of them.

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What about Kimi Antonelli? Not a factor, starting in 19th after an engine penalty, the world championship leader's team boss Toto Wolff ruled out the Italian getting a podium in his home race.

Especially in Lewis Hamilton, this was the weekend Ferrari were supposed to make big inroads into the 59 point - over two race wins - lead Antonelli held heading into Monza.

Ferrari's Monza spins out of control

So what happened? Antonelli won and instead extends his lead to 76 points over Hamilton - over three race wins!

Rather than getting back into the title fight, Ferrari pretty much decided to bail out of it instead.

It stated immediately on race day too. Leclerc squeezed out an attacking Hamilton into turn one, dumping his team-mate down to P10 after the seven-time world champion took to the gravel.

Then the even bigger moment, and one that played straight into the hands of Mercedes.

Leclerc spun out at the end of lap two, at which point Antonelli was already up to P12. The red flag came out and stopped the race.

Antonelli started on the hard tyre, this was a perfect opportunity for him to move onto the medium tyres and in theory run until the end of the race. The podium was back on - and all because of a Ferrari error.

Kimi Antonelli started 19th at Monza but still won the Italian Grand Prix

Antonelli makes light work of Hamilton

By lap 12, Ferrari's goose was cooked. Lap 12! Antonelli blitzed past Hamilton to move into fourth and the Italian team wouldn't see another Mercedes for the rest of the afternoon.

Hamilton never recovered. Ferrari were well beaten by both Mercedes, and that was bad enough, but it was much worse than that.

Max Verstappen dragged probably the worst Red Bull car in the last 10 years on to a podium and even both the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri left Hamilton's Ferrari for dust.

That highlighted another Ferrari error. When the virtual safety car was deployed around the halfway point of the race, Antonelli and Verstappen were straight into the pits to put on a set of medium tyres to attack until the end of the race - getting their reward.

Lewis Hamilton was squeezed at turn one by Charles Leclerc

At Ferrari, nothing. Hamilton had long been complaining about his tyres, yet was left to just rot out on track for a mediocre finish.

It wasn't Hamilton's best performance, but some serious questions needed to be asked on the pitwall too. The race proved track position was far from King. Overtaking opportunities were everywhere.

Hamilton's title hopes in the gutter

It was a total shambles. Before the weekend, Hamilton was talking about Ferrari having to back one driver in the championship fight, given his healthy but not huge gap over team-mate Leclerc.

Now, words like that look like a total joke. On the weekend Ferrari had to step up and claim glory in Monza, they stumbled to a horrific result.

Granted, Monza isn't a Ferrari friendly track this season but this was beyond acceptable, and enough to make a mockery of their title ambitions.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Italian Grand Prix