Lewis Hamilton arrived at Monza with Ferrari's home crowd already dreaming of something special — and the seven-time world champion was more than happy to feed those hopes.
The Briton made a suitably flamboyant entrance to the Italian Grand Prix weekend, arriving in his recently restored Ferrari F40 before heading into the paddock to face the media.
But beneath the polished spectacle was a serious message: Hamilton genuinely believes Ferrari has the ingredients to win at Monza.
The Scuderia still has a sizeable performance deficit to overcome, specifically to Mercedes, and another power-unit upgrade is unlikely to produce a miraculous transformation overnight.
Yet Hamilton sees a team that is working with far greater purpose than it did during his difficult first season in red, with a clearly defined development direction finally beginning to bear fruit.
Ferrari has finally found its ‘North Star’
For Hamilton, representing Ferrari at Monza carries an emotional weight that few other races can match.
The occasion remains remarkably fresh despite being his second Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver, and he made clear just how much the privilege means to him.
“I mean, it’s the best feeling to be a Ferrari driver,” said Hamilton. “It’s such an honour and a privilege to arrive in Italy at this iconic race with the most iconic and best team in the world.
“It’s really phenomenal to experience it for the second year in a row, and it still feels new, so it’s not something you can get used to.”
Ferrari's latest engine development could provide another piece of the performance puzzle this weekend.
Hamilton is under no illusion that it will erase the team's deficit by itself, but he believes every incremental gain matters — particularly when combined with the relentless work taking place at Maranello.
“Every little helps; every little helps,” he said.
“I think up until this point of the year we’ve been losing… even in the last race, on such a short circuit, we were losing four tenths a lap through the race, so that’s a huge deficit and we’ve carried that through the year to this point.
“What I can say is I really, really am proud of when I go back to the factory and I see how hard everyone is working, that they’re really just heads down. Everyone’s so enthusiastic.
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“I see a different focus this year to last year. Last year I felt like there wasn’t really a North Star, and we were kind of... I think doing the best we could, but not really knowing where exactly we were trying to aim for.
“Now we have a North Star, we know where we need to work towards, and I think they’ve [the team at the factory] done a tremendous job to really pull together and deliver.
“This is a step forward. It’s not the whole gap that we need, but we knew that would be the case. But to see bits coming each weekend, adding to the car, it’s exciting to see that we are pushing. I strongly still believe that we’ve got what it takes to win.”
A belief that Ferrari can deliver
That final declaration inevitably raised expectations around what Ferrari might achieve in front of its home supporters.
Hamilton is chasing a potentially historic first victory for the Scuderia at Monza, while a triumph would also move him beyond Michael Schumacher's five wins at the circuit.
But Hamilton was keen to distinguish between believing Ferrari has the capability to win and predicting that the team will necessarily do so this weekend.
At this level, he stressed, victory requires virtually every component of the operation to work perfectly.
“Well, my point was that I strongly believe that the team has what it takes to win,” he insisted.
“At this level, how close it is up front… I think for us to win this weekend, and in any weekend, it takes the whole collective to come together. It’s not just one thing; everything has to flow from the beginning.
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