ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Monza is where the magic happens for Ferrari. And the Italian Grand Prix couldn’t come at a better time.<\/p>\n
Formula 1’s annual pilgrimage to the \u201cTemple of Speed\u201d this week brings a chance for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to rebound from race-ending crashes at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday. It was only Ferrari’s second Grand Prix this year without scoring points and Hamilton also picked up a grid penalty for Monza.<\/p>\n
The only Italian on the grid, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, wants to \u201cput in the trash\u201d a practice crash at Monza last year, and make up for ending Leclerc’s race on Sunday. Success has been rare for Italian drivers at Monza, though.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton’s \u2018unique experience\u2019<\/p>\n
There isn’t much that seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton hasn’t done in F1, but racing for Ferrari at Monza will be something \u201cunique.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s Hamilton’s 19th race at the high-speed Italian track, but his first in red.<\/p>\n
He’s spoken of wanting to enjoy his racing again after a difficult start with Ferrari, and insisted Sunday he’d made progress despite sliding into the barriers at the Dutch Grand Prix, “so to come away with that is definitely painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worse was to come later that day as Hamilton was handed a five-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix for failing to slow down enough for yellow flags before Sunday’s race at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n
Hamilton had a taste of racing in red in Italy at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in May, and dedicated his result \u2014 fourth place \u2014 to the Ferrari fans. He still hasn’t been able to get onto the podium in a Grand Prix race for Ferrari.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support this team has around the world from the Tifosi is unmatched and so I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be a unique experience,\u201d Hamilton said last week.<\/p>\n
A history of excellence<\/p>\n
Even some of Ferrari’s most troubled F1 seasons have been redefined by success at Monza, like in 1988 when Gerhard Berger took an emotional first win for the team since the death of founder Enzo Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Leclerc won there in his first Ferrari season in 2019 and again last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our first experiences are going to be very different because Lewis has lived so many incredible moments already,\u201d Leclerc said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure that he will still be shocked by how special this week feels, but he\u2019s gone through a lot more than I had done back then. I just came from Sauber to win in Monza with Ferrari, which was unbelievable. So it was all at once and it was quite crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonelli’s bad memories<\/p>\n
It’s been 20 years since an Italian driver was on the Monza podium.<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli arrived in F1 with plenty of hype as the youngster succeeding Hamilton at Mercedes. Crashing 10 minutes into his first F1 practice session for Mercedes at Monza last year was a tough introduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have amazing memories, but also really, really bad ones,\u201d Antonelli said last week. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be important to just have a clean weekend, clean sessions and just put in the trash what happened. I think it\u2019s going to be a really special weekend.”<\/p>\n
Putting Antonelli in the car a year ago was a gamble and \u201cmaybe a mistake\u201d, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted Friday, but argued it would have been a major confidence-builder without the crash.<\/p>\n
Antonelli has two points finishes in his last nine races after a strong start to 2025. He was competitive on pace at the Dutch Grand Prix but it all went wrong when he tried to overtake Leclerc and instead tipped the Ferrari driver into the barrier. Mercedes has yet to formally confirm Antonelli or teammate George Russell for 2026.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Monza is where the magic happens for Ferrari. And the Italian Grand Prix couldn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-111253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}