‘Lock the drivers in a room’ – Do Ferrari need to deliver some ‘home truths’ after their Monza dramas?

Ferrari’s Italian Grand Prix weekend was supposed to mark a step in the right direction as they unleashed more car upgrades and a new power unit – but their hopes of challenging for victory were undone by the exit of the first chicane.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton came perilously close to a major collision at the start of Sunday’s race, with the seven-time World Champion making a bold move down the inside of Turn 1, only to be pushed wide and into the gravel at the exit of Turn 2.

After the race, which he finished in a distant sixth position (Leclerc having retired via a heavy Lap 2 crash), Hamilton stated that Ferrari need to review “how we communicate” and ultimately “change things” when it comes to the two red cars going racing.

As the paddock packed down on Sunday evening, Davide Valsecchi and Lawrence Barretto teamed up to talk through the events in the latest episode of the F1 Nation podcast.

“We are speaking about the best driver in F1 history, or one of the best by result, and a huge talent that probably deserves a championship, and doesn’t have it yet,” said Valsecchi of Hamilton and Leclerc.

“How crazy is it? 400,000 people here watching for them, and they fight each other at the first corner. I’m sorry, I’m very disappointed about our drivers.”

Barretto added: “I’m disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to see what Ferrari’s pace really was around here in race trim because of that.

“If I take you back to the start of the weekend, I interviewed all three of them – Charles, Lewis and Fred [Vasseur, team boss] – in Milan, [at Ferrari’s] flagship store. They were so excited about the weekend, because they were bringing the engine upgrade, they brought some chassis updates specifically for Monza, which most teams weren’t really doing.

“I think there was this real belief that they’d been chipping away, and they could maybe make something magical happen at this magic track. It looked pretty good on Friday, and then Qualifying didn’t go their way, but suddenly with penalties that happened, they were third and fourth [on the grid].

“Charles’ view is probably that Lewis probably shouldn’t have stuck it up the inside at Turn 1. I’m not saying Charles did what he did deliberately to Lewis at Turn 2, but I think it's both of them [playing a part].

“In this moment, they defined the race already. It made no sense to go up against each other at Turn 1 and Turn 2, unless there is confusion between them as to how Ferrari are going to deal with this championship as we get into the spicy end.”

Barretto went on to argue that Ferrari must now seriously think about imposing rules of engagement – something Hamilton pushed during his post-race interviews.

“What is needed is for Lewis and Charles to sit down with Fred and go, ‘Right, this is what the rule is’,” he said. “One of them might not like it, but ‘this is what the rule is going forward’, because they are chasing Mercedes, who are up and away at the minute, and you can’t be throwing away potential results like this.

“Ferrari are very well positioned in that it’s Fred who’s going to have to have these chats, because I think it’s a very difficult conversation that he’s going have to have, with a seven-time World Champion and Ferrari’s golden child.

“It’s difficult, but fortunately for Fred, his man management has been incredible. That’s been one of his skillsets coming through the junior formulas and into F1, the way he manages drivers. He ran Charles at Sauber, Alfa Romeo, he’s brought him here, they can have a difficult conversation. Lewis, they’ve had this relationship for how many years now? They can have that difficult conversation.

“I think it is going to have to be them sat in a room, lock the door, get a bit of paper out, and have some hard truths. I’m not sure I would pick any team boss other than Fred, currently, to have that conversation. It’s got to be a tough conversation. They’ve got to have some home truths.”

Those incidents aside, Valsecchi thinks Monza has also shown that Ferrari are still too far away to put pressure on Mercedes in either championship battle – Hamilton trailing Kimi Antonelli by 76 points, and 122 points separating the two teams.

“We need to be realistic,” he commented. “We need to remember that after the fight [between the Ferraris], there was a red flag, and then a restart. Hamilton was immediately in the fight for taking the victory or a podium. He was eighth, Antonelli 12th, at the restart, and they [Ferrari] were not quick enough.

“The Mercedes engine scared the others, because today Mercedes were unbelievably strong. There was Alpine, there was [Lando] Norris, there was [Oscar] Piastri, and then there was Ferrari. So, if we want to be realistic, if we are going in the next few races where there are long straights, the Mercedes engine will have some advantage, and that is clear.”