Lewis Hamilton rules out world title challenge after Italian Grand Prix setback

Lewis Hamilton has conceded the Formula One world championship this year is all but out of reach after a bruising Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton’s afternoon included a clash with his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, which he thought was the result of the team’s failure to listen to his entreaties to manage their drivers and execute races better.

The race at Monza was won by Kimi Antonelli after a remarkable comeback by the Mercedes driver from 19th on the grid. Hamilton could manage only sixth. Having been 59 points back he now trails Antonelli by 76 with 10 meetings remaining and he felt that Ferrari not prioritising his title chances, coupled with operational failures, had finally cost him a shot at the drivers’ championship.

“From today, we’ve just lost so much ground to them on points. It’s far too late for those decisions to come,” he said. “It’s many, many weeks too late. All I can do is just try and turn up. I’ll get up tomorrow morning and I’ll give it my best. I don’t know how many points it is now but it’s an amount and with the pace that they [Mercedes] have, it is a very, very difficult amount to close up.”

Leclerc did not finish the race after a huge crash on lap two from which he emerged unhurt. Before that on the first lap at the first chicane, Hamilton looked to go past his teammate but was squeezed wide, went off and dropped to 10th place.

The seven‑time champion said immediately that Leclerc had driven him off track and noted pointedly that the incident demonstrated where Ferrari had been going wrong and that the team principal, Fred Vasseur, had to bear responsibility.

“Look I don’t race dirty, I have always raced clean and fairly and always left space, so I don’t think they should be worried about me,” he said. “I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space but ultimately it comes from the top. It trickles down. So it starts with Fred and there’s only so much you can say and push and shout from the mountaintop.

“I’ve already said that we had to look at how we communicate because if we continue to travel the same path, we’ll get the same result.”

Leclerc is now 112 points behind Antonelli and Vasseur intimated that the team would now consider prioritising Hamilton.

“The outcome of [turns] one-two is not good for the team,” Vasseur said.

“If we have a team order or whatever? I think that the good comparison that I made was that last year, [Oscar] Piastri was leading McLaren at this stage of the season and if McLaren had put everything on Piastri, Max Verstappen would have been champion.

“At one stage you have to take a decision but I think it was too early to take a decision before Monza. Now, we have time to discuss with the guys.”

The discussion will have to be swift with the next round in Madrid next weekend but Hamilton was emphatic that Ferrari had to address the issues and once more compared the Scuderia’s operational activities unfavourably with his former team, the championship leaders Mercedes.

“When I was at Mercedes we had written rules of engagement. And we never really had it too bad,” he said. “There was a moment with me and Nico [Rosberg] a couple of times but more often than not, it was good. Here there are no rules. That’s something that needs to probably change.”