Lewis Hamilton says that his first Italian Grand Prix as Ferrari driver left him motivated to work as hard as possible to realize his dream to win for the Scuderia in Monza.
Ferrari always enjoys enormous support during the home race, with the Tifosi in large numbers from the start of the weekend. Earlier this week, Hamilton was part of a big fan event in the center of Milan and spent some time after the race on the pit wall with the crowd on the well straight on, and he says that the special experience met expectations.
“I think it was everything you could ever hope for,” said Hamilton. “Of course you want to fight at the front, but it was just incredible to be on the receiving side. I mean, it’s just Ferrari all the way around the track. You now see the well straight, it is as far as the eye can see.
“It’s a dream to drive for this team and I’m really going to work as hard as I can to be on top of that stage. That is my dream.”
Hamilton had been competitive all weekend and qualified fifth, a place behind teammate Charles Leclerc, but had to start the tenth because of a grid penalty earned in Zandvoort. Climbing through the field, he quickly recovered to the sixth, but could not get George Russell better and was philosophical about the end result.
“Yes, there was definitely a good catching up. Stow forward, coming from where I was, tenth, [after qualifying fifth] To try to catch up with all these other cars. Sitting in traffic for periods, you naturally lose time to the cars and eat more of your tires up.
“So I think I am generally happy with the overall achievements. And I think this is as good as we could have. I think we might have had the fifth if we might have tried, if we had undermined Mercedes, but I don’t think that was … we just missed it, I think.”
Team director Fred Vasseur agreed that Ferrari’s strategic attempts to pass Russell does not bear fruit, where Hamilton had shown the pace to bring the Mercedes into difficulties.
“It’s not that the pace dropped,” said Vasseur. “I think we could return to Russell at the end of the first Stint. Then we took a bet to expand and try to have a tire advantage at the end, but the relegation was too low and it didn’t work.
“But I think it was the best way to try to catch up on Russell. Maybe if I have to do it again, I might have set up Lewis a little earlier, but I think it was the best option to try something else.”
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