Monaco GP: a two-faced Ferrari that avoids building expectations
The Monaco Grand Prix ends with mixed emotions for Ferrari, as the team celebrates a second consecutive podium for Lewis Hamilton but also suffers the dramatic retirement of Charles Leclerc just ten laps from the finish.
Ferrari’s weekend in Monte Carlo closes with Hamilton finishing second and Leclerc failing to reach the end of his home race after hitting the barriers in his SF-26. While initial footage suggested the Monegasque driver had gone onto the dirty side of the track and picked up debris or marbles, losing front-left grip, Leclerc later rejected this version of events in his post-race comments, explaining instead that the issue came from the brakes.
This is a recurring weakness carried over from the previous Grand Prix, although the team already has a solution ready to be introduced from the Barcelona weekend onwards. Once again, Lewis Hamilton appears more comfortable with the SF-26, having already dealt with similar issues before and adopted a different technical direction that Charles Leclerc is likely to follow next week.
As in Montreal, the #44 finished ahead of his teammate and climbed onto the second step of the podium for Ferrari, behind race winner Kimi Antonelli. Overall, the weekend’s outcome is broadly in line with Canada, although Lewis Hamilton’s overall performance was slightly less strong, particularly when comparing Saturday’s qualifying pace.
GP Monaco, D’Ambrosio: “Charles’ mistake? A combination of factors”
At the end of the race, Fred Vasseur did not appear in front of the media microphones at Sky Sport, despite being present on the pit wall throughout the weekend due to health issues announced earlier. Instead, Jérôme d’Ambrosio once again took responsibility for the post-race analysis.
The Ferrari deputy team principal reviewed the team’s Sunday in Maranello, discussing both Hamilton’s race and Leclerc’s retirement. Without going into excessive technical detail, much like the drivers themselves, Jérôme d’Ambrosio was clear in identifying what Ferrari still lacks in order to close the gap to the front-running teams.
“It is now clear over the last few races that Lewis is finding the right feeling with the car and is looking very comfortable,” Jérôme said. “At the moment we are losing out to Mercedes, particularly compared to Kimi Antonelli’s car, but we are managing to extract, and he is managing to extract, the maximum from the potential available.”
He then moved on to Leclerc’s incident: “It is important to preface that contact with the barriers is often the result of different contributing factors. Today something simply did not go in the right direction. Looking ahead to the next races, our job remains to provide Charles with full support. Tomorrow we will return to Maranello to analyse everything in detail, identify the correct strategy to move forward, and take the direction we consider most appropriate.”
GP Monaco, Ferrari: a season built step by step
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, when assessing Ferrari’s overall performance, clarified that the team’s approach is not focused on long-term projections but on extracting the maximum from each individual race weekend.
“Our focus is on each single weekend and we aim to optimise the package we have,” he explained.
He added: “The season is still very long, but it is undeniable that Mercedes is currently a step ahead of us, which is why we need to push harder in development. At the moment there is still a mismatch between the expected data before certain Grands Prix and the actual track performance. We are only at the beginning of the championship, especially under the new regulations. It will be crucial to evaluate the behaviour of the cars across very different types of circuits.”
The next round of the season will take place in Barcelona, traditionally one of the most important circuits for teams. The layout is highly technical, and with its mix of long straights and both slow and fast corners, it provides a clear benchmark of a car’s true performance level.
“The priority,” Jérôme D’Ambrosio explained, “is to arrive in Barcelona with a highly analytical approach, aiming for the best possible result.”
He concluded by underlining the mindset required: “We must avoid building excessive expectations, because they often risk negatively influencing the management of the weekend. Instead, we need to maintain maximum focus and clarity in order to capitalise on every resource currently available to us.”
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