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Metro
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Metro
Lewis Hamilton avoids penalty after huge Monaco Grand Prix crash
Sir Lewis Hamilton's chances of winning the Monaco Grand Prix have taken a major blow after he crashed heavily in the final minutes of Saturday practice. Hamilton was well-placed to fight for victory at the iconic street circuit this weekend, with Ferrari emerging as the surprise pace setters. Teammate Charles Leclerc topped all three practice sessions at his home grand prix, ahead of championship contenders Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Hamilton is yet to finish on the podium since joining the Scuderia in 2025, with the Italian team lagging behind McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes, though he did win the sprint race in China. But his weekend in Monte Carlo has been heavily compromised by a heavy shunt in the third and final practice session. As the seven-time world champion approached turn three on a flying lap, he appeared to be caught out by slow moving traffic and their turbulent air. The Brit suffered a huge snap and while he tried to get back under control, he was powerless to stop the car from slamming into the barriers, wrecking the right side of his SF-25 and bringing out the red flag. 'Damn, hit the wall! Sorry guys,' the 40-year-old said over the team radio before jumping out unscathed. Ferrari mechanics now face a race against time to repair his car in time for qualifying at 3pm but thankfully for Hamilton, he is not at risk of being penalised over the incident. In the past, such a crash can result in a gearbox change which incurs a grid penalty for the race – a disastrous punishment in Monaco given the limited overtaking opportunities. But Sky Sports state that there are no longer any gearbox grid penalties, with reporter Ted Kravitz adding: 'It's about what you would imagine [to repair] so the front-right and the rear-right. 'I still think that they will just detach from the engine the gearbox. It is a big job but it would be ready for qualifying. 'I don't think we're looking at any doubt about Lewis Hamilton's car being ready for qualifying, it's just that lunch will be cancelled at Ferrari.' The slow cars involved in the crash, Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Haas' Esteban Ocon, were very briefly investigated by the stewards but no further action was taken. As is the case every year at the narrow Monaco track, traffic has proven a major problem, with Leclerc crashing into the back of Lance Stroll and destroying his front wing just minutes into first practice on Friday. More Trending 'I don't know what he was going to do if he didn't crash because he was going to crash into the cars in front,' 2009 champion and Hamilton's former teammate Jenson Button said on Sky Sports. 'This is the problem. You are arriving at such high speed there, on the limit and you've got a car in front which is losing you all your downforce on entry. 'It's definitely Lewis' mistake but it was not an easy situation for him at that point. A loss of downforce has definitely hurt him there.' More to follow… For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Monaco Grand Prix: Plenty of horsepower in the car park as F1 stars enjoy working from home MORE: The 2025 Rich List reveals wealthiest people in the UK — who's on it? MORE: British couple killed after £300,000 Ferrari 'plunges off' mountain highway
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
It's early in Formula One, and Ferrari has already faded
Ferrari came just 14 points short of winning the Formula One 's constructors' championship in 2024, but already the fabled Italian team is firmly out of contention for the crown. It is languishing in fourth, 165 points behind the runaway leader, McLaren . It has just one top three finish this year. "The beginning has not been easy, we all know that," Benedetto Vigna, the Ferrari CEO, said in an conference call earlier in May. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 기미 잡티, 이거 몰라서 평생 방치했네요 두아이연구원 Undo Its car, the SF-25, has not lived up to expectations and has lacked performance across a variety of conditions. Charles Leclerc , who dominated in Monaco 12 months ago to finally win at his home Grand Prix, is pessimistic. "Unfortunately, I'm really not looking forward to Monaco this year," Leclerc said after the Miami Grand Prix . "As I don't think we've got a car to be quick there." Live Events Lewis Hamilton , the seven-time world champion who joined the team after 12 years at Mercedes, has not looked fully comfortable. He shone in the sprint race in China, winning from pole position, but he has labored and his mood has fluctuated. After finishing seventh in Saudi Arabia in April, a downbeat Hamilton said he feared 2025 would be painful and that he was "struggling to feel the car beneath me," while also being clueless as to how to address the problem. After the following race in Miami, where he finished eighth, Hamilton was significantly more ebullient, saying, "I truly believe that when we fix some of the problems that we have with the car, we'll be back in the fight with the Mercedes, with the [Red] Bulls." Even accounting for Hamilton's own performances, Ferrari has struggled to extract speed during qualifying sessions and has difficulties getting Pirelli's tires into the optimum operating window for one-lap performance. Those results always heavily dictate Grand Prix results, a trend that has been prominent in 2025 because of the impact of disrupted air flow when following another car. Grid position is also vital for Monaco, less so because of dirty air, but because of the narrow streets that render passing nearly impossible. While Hamilton's average qualifying result in 2025 has been a lowly 8.7, Leclerc -- a renowned qualifying specialist with 26 pole positions -- is at 6.1. "I think we need to focus on qualifying," Leclerc said in Saudi Arabia. "I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not, but unfortunately, the car potential is just not good enough to fight for better in qualifying," he continued. Similar sentiments were echoed in Miami, after Leclerc qualified only eighth. "I feel we are maximizing the potential of the car," he said. "It's just that the potential of the car is just not there. And when I finish a lap, again, in qualifying, I feel very satisfied with my lap, but it's only bringing us whatever it is, P8 or something." Leclerc said that "we are just not fast," adding: "Whatever we do with the car, we can run it in different ways, but we just don't have the down force that the others have at the moment, especially at low speeds." It is possible that Ferrari can remedy its problems by bringing new components, but these take time to design and produce -- once an issue is identified -- and even then there is no guarantee of its efficacy. Other teams, too, are not standing still. Operationally, Ferrari has also made mistakes, such as misreading the weather in Australia and suffering a rare double disqualification in China when its cars had separate technical breaches, with one underweight and the other with excessive skid plank wear that rendered it illegal. Ferrari has two high-caliber drivers, and all the resources at its disposal, but as another new regulation change looms for 2026, a championship, which it last won in 2008, may continue to be out of reach. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
IOL News
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
Vasseur calls for ‘much better job' from Ferrari at Monaco GP
Charles Leclerc Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc will be hoping to put on a show for his home fans at the Monaco Grand Prix. Photo: AFP Image: AFP It must feel like a punch in the gut for the Tifosi to accept Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur openly admitting that they are not as quick as McLaren, even at their very best. But that seems to be life lately if you're a Ferrari or Lewis Hamilton fan. The proof is in the pudding. Ferrari have incredibly capable drivers who are hungry to compete. It's just that they've been put into absolute donkeys and asked to compete with the likes of McLaren or Max Verstappen – an impossible task for both Ferrari drivers this season. A ray of light cut through the dark clouds hovering over the Prancing Horse during last Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, as Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ended a disastrous weekend on a high note, taking home a P4 and P6 finish respectively. It was all thanks to some unusually decisive strategic action by Ferrari to start Hamilton on hard tyres, while most of the paddock went on a medium compound. This gave the seven-time world champion time to climb up the order while the top of the pack had to pit for new tyres. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading At the end of Emilia Romagna, the Ferrari crew actually looked upbeat, but still had to swallow a bitter pill – knowing that the data shows just how far behind the SF-25 is to the McLarens or Verstappen's RB21. 'I don't think that we have the best car. Even when we are in good shape in the race, we are not faster than the McLaren,' Vasseur said. 'We are there, probably, but not fast enough. 'What is clear is that over the last three or four races, we have always had a much better pace in the race than in qualifying.' With the European segment of the F1 calendar on the way after last weekend's race at Imola, the paddock now set their sights on the sport's most glamourous destination this Sunday: Monaco. Home-town hero Leclerc will have the unfortunate pleasure of adding a bit more pressure on his shoulders, trying his best to not let down his fellow Monagasques. He will have some comfort in the fact that he took the win at Monaco last year, sending Ferrari fans into a frenzy, but the SF-25 is not proving easy to tame this season. Especially in a race as tight as Monaco, Ferrari will need to find whatever pace they can ahead of this weekend. Being almost impossible to overtake on, the Monaco street circuit is one of few races where qualifying is more important than the actual race. Starting out from pole position can all but solidify a win at Monaco. Perhaps the only time an F1 driver was scared to start from pole in Monaco is when McLaren's Aryton Senna was behind them. Senna, the king of Monaco, grabbed six victories, eight podiums and five pole positions in just 10 GPs at Monaco. But the modern-day F1 GOAT Hamilton will be also going into this weekend with some thimble of confidence despite Ferrari's performance woes, knowing he is the fastest man to ever race the circuit. During the 2019 Monaco qualifying, Hamilton stripped the tarmac bare with a lap time of 1:10.166 seconds. That was 13 seconds ahead of Senna's fastest lap set in 1988, of course, with a much more technologically disadvantaged car compared to the Mercedes that Hamilton drove in 2019. But if there's one thing elite athletes are good at doing, it's overlooking all of the numbers, records and history to show up on the day and execute - much like Verstappen did at Imola last Sunday. But the Ferrari boss vented his frustration over their lack of pace, and stressed the importance of Saturday's qualifying session. 'There is a bit of frustration for us. For sure, we need to put all our effort into this. Next weekend, in Monaco, on Saturday evening, it will be almost done,' Vasseur said. 'We have to (have) much more performance on Saturday. 'Monaco is probably a bit different on tyre management. We have to do a much better job on Saturday next week.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hamilton's great expectations not yet met but Ferrari fans show patience
On the short walk from the railway station in Imola to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the tree-lined streets, scattering dappled spring sunshine, throng with the faithful. They come adorned in the rosso corsa of the Scuderia, heading towards their first home race of the season and the long-awaited chance to see the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton take to the track for the team they feel are their own. The anticipation, building for more than a year, is palpable and the passion that comes with it all too striking – as Hamilton is more than aware. Related: Lewis Hamilton at 40: F1 trailblazer has it all to prove again at Ferrari Since Monday the tifosi, as Italians call fans, have stood patiently outside the factory gates at Maranello, less than 50 miles from Imola. There each day to see the drivers arrive in the morning and waiting steadfastly until they leave in the evening, before they follow the team up the road to Imola. When Hamilton announced he was to switch to Ferrari from Mercedes at the start of last season, the tifosi knew there was a full season to go before their man would don the scarlet but even at this race last year his arrival was being celebrated. The most successful driver in the sport's history finally united with the oldest and most successful marque and the dream of finally ending the Scuderia's drivers' championship drought stretching back to 2007. Yet Ferrari are not in the place Hamilton or the team expected for their first foray together on Italian soil. Having finished as runners-up to McLaren last year and closing with a competitive car, this season has opened with disappointment, as the SF-25 struggles for pace and performance. The single swallow that was a win in the sprint race in China for Hamilton was not the harbinger of spring for Ferrari. In Imola Hamilton knew the weight, the history and the hope that is part and parcel of driving for the Scuderia. 'It is pretty incredible the support this team has,' he said. 'There is a lot of high hope and expectation of course but that comes with greatness. When you are a great team, that is what people expect.' Great expectations then but Hamilton is seventh in the drivers' title and 90 points behind the leader, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, with Ferrari fourth in the constructors'. At the last round in Miami he and his teammate Charles Leclerc found themselves in an intense fight with the two Williams cars, there absolutely on merit, and with Leclerc and Hamilton managing only seventh and eighth. The tricky start to the season has been harder on Hamilton, who is adapting to a new team, its structure, operations and personnel after 12 years at Mercedes. This is a complex enough task even if the car is quick and compliant, which the Ferrari is not. His frustration has been aired but it is as yet still only that, an immensely competitive driver urging his team on to more. The scrutiny on them all has only ramped up to a greater degree for this home race, as acknowledged by the team principal, Fred Vasseur. 'There is extra pressure but we have to take this as a positive, as a push and to see all the tifosi in the grandstands it's an extra motivation,' he said. 'Lewis's position is that he is taking it as a huge opportunity, this home race in front of the tifosi, with all this enthusiasm.' Certainly here the British driver's arrival has been embraced. Kiarah and her friend Selena, 19-year-olds from Ravenna, were bedecked in Hamilton's No 44 branded Ferrari team gear, with Kiarah, having added a home made set of '44' deeley boppers, waggling enthusiastically with every bob of her head. 'We are so excited to see him,' they said almost in unison. 'We like his mentality, he is a winner. To have him at Ferrari, we are so happy,' said Kiarah. 'He will win for Ferrari, maybe not now but later, he will.' Related: George Russell scornful of 'crazy' FIA's retreat on swearing drivers There is, then, something of a mutual appreciation occurring between driver and perhaps the most ardent fans of them all. A relationship perhaps unique to Ferrari and its place in Italy, as Hamilton recognised and was soaking up at Imola. 'You know that Italians are passionate and that there is passion around Ferrari,' he added. 'But it's a lot more than you expect when you are actually in it and it is beautiful.' Hamilton managed fifth fastest in first practice, with the time sheets headed again by the two championship leading McLarens, of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, but with under a tenth of a second separating the top five. In the afternoon session Piastri was once more on top, two-hundredths clear of Norris but with both drivers enjoying a full two-tenths on Alpine's Pierre Gasly in third, Mercedes's George Russell fourth and Max Verstappen fifth for Red Bull.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hamilton's great expectations not yet met but Ferrari fans show patience
Ferrari fans are probably the most passionate in F1 and are waiting for Lewis Hamilton to show his class in their car. Ferrari fans are probably the most passionate in F1 and are waiting for Lewis Hamilton to show his class in their car. Photograph: Andrej Isaković/AFP/Getty Images On the short walk from the railway station in Imola to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the tree-lined streets, scattering dappled spring sunshine, throng with the faithful. They come adorned in the rosso corsa of the Scuderia heading towards their first home race of the season and the long-awaited chance to see the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton take to the track for the team they feel are their own. The anticipation, building for more than a year, is palpable and the passion that comes with it all too striking – as Hamilton is more than aware. Advertisement Related: Lewis Hamilton at 40: F1 trailblazer has it all to prove again at Ferrari Since Monday the tifosi, as Ferrari fans are known, have stood patiently outside the factory gates at Maranello, less than 50 miles from Imola. There each day to see the drivers arrive in the morning and waiting steadfastly until they leave in the evening, before they follow the team up the road to Imola. When Hamilton announced he was to switch to Ferrari from Mercedes at the start of last season, the tifosi knew there was a full season to go before their man would don the scarlet but even at this race last year his arrival was being celebrated. The most successful driver in the sport's history finally united with the oldest and most successful marque and the dream of finally ending the Scuderia's drivers' championship drought stretching back to 2007. Yet Ferrari are not in the place Hamilton or the team expected for their first foray together on Italian soil. Having finished as runners-up to McLaren last year and closing with a competitive car, this season has opened with disappointment, as the SF-25 struggles for pace and performance. The single swallow that was a win in the sprint race in China for Hamilton was not the harbinger of spring for Ferrari. Advertisement In Imola Hamilton knew the weight, the history and the hope that is part and parcel of driving for the Scuderia. 'It is pretty incredible the support this team has,' he said. 'There is a lot of high hope and expectation of course but that comes with greatness. When you are a great team, that is what people expect.' Great expectations then but Hamilton is seventh in the drivers' title and 90 points behind the leader, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, with Ferrari fourth in the constructors'. At the last round in Miami he and his teammate Charles Leclerc found themselves in an intense fight with the two Williams cars, there absolutely on merit, and with Leclerc and Hamilton managing only seventh and eighth. The tricky start to the season has been harder on Hamilton who is adapting to a new team, its structure, operations and personnel after 12 years at Mercedes. This is a complex enough task even if the car is quick and compliant, which the Ferrari is not. His frustration has been aired but it is as yet still only that, an immensely competitive driver urging his team on to more. The scrutiny on them all has only ramped up to a greater degree for this home race, as acknowledged by the team principal, Fred Vasseur. Advertisement 'There is extra pressure but we have to take this as a positive, as a push and to see all the tifosi in the grandstands it's an extra motivation,' he said. 'Lewis's position is that he is taking it as a huge opportunity, this home race in front of the tifosi, with all this enthusiasm.' Certainly here the British driver's arrival has been embraced. Kiarah and her friend Selena, 19-year-olds from Ravenna, were bedecked in Hamilton's No 44 branded Ferrari team gear, with Kiarah, having added a home made set of '44' deeley boppers, waggling enthusiastically with every bob of her head. 'We are so excited to see him,' they said almost in unison. 'We like his mentality, he is a winner. To have him at Ferrari, we are so happy,' said Kiarah. 'He will win for Ferrari, maybe not now but later, he will.' Related: George Russell scornful of 'crazy' FIA's retreat on swearing drivers There is then something of a mutual appreciation occurring between driver and perhaps the most ardent fans of them all. A relationship perhaps unique to Ferrari and its place in Italy as Hamilton recognised and was soaking up at Imola. 'You know that Italians are passionate and that there is passion around Ferrari,' he added. 'But it's a lot more than you expect when you are actually in it and it is beautiful.' Advertisement Hamilton managed fifth fastest in first practice, with the timesheets headed again by the two championship leading McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris but with under a tenth of a second separating the top five. In the afternoon session Piastri was once more on top, two-hundredths clear of Norris but with both drivers enjoying a full two-tenths on Alpine's Pierre Gasly in third, Mercedes' George Russell fourth and Max Verstappen fifth for Red Bull.
