All eyes on Ferrari at Monza as Lewis Hamilton sees hopes of maintaining record dented with penalty

Just as quickly as the door opened at Zandvoort for Lewis Hamilton to clinch his first win of the season – and extend his year-on-year Grand Prix victory record – a Max Verstappen surge on quick softs slammed it shut. Now with seven races to go, Hamilton will already be looking to Singapore in three weeks’ time despite his arrival in Italy this weekend.

The seven-time world champion will take an engine penalty, demoting a Mercedes excruciatingly short on raw speed in 2022 to the back of the grid at the quickest circuit on the calendar here at Monza.

In a futile season where the Silver Arrows’ hybrid domination has been rendered a thing of the past, Hamilton’s 16-year record of winning at least one race in every season he’s competed in F1 has been pigeonholed as something to strive for in the closing months. By his fans that is, not the man himself.

"I don’t care about records," he said in Thursday’s press conference.

"For me it’s about winning another World Championship. The feeling of winning it is so unique and special. But of course the idea that no driver in history has gone past seven, you want to try to accomplish that.

"I feel healthier than I’ve ever felt - I focus a lot on that. I’m feeling fit, I love what I’m doing and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.”

That last line has extra wieght, amid reports that Mercedes are considering giving a reserve contract to Daniel Ricciardo next year as a back-up for 2024 in case Hamilton opts not to extend his deal beyond 2023.

Sat alongside the last year’s winner at Monza Ricciardo, who was dropped by McLaren two weeks ago and is searching up and down the paddock for a drive next year, 37-year-old Hamilton turned his head sideways and stated: “I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Sorry buddy!

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“I will always be with Mercedes until the day I die and I feel like I can race for quite a bit longer.”

Irrespective of Hamilton’s demotion this weekend and future beyond, there’s no doubting where all the focus lies this weekend, at the centenary of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and 75^th anniversary of Ferrari. Indeed, sporting bright yellow t-shirts during their media duties, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are all too aware of the significance of the Italian Grand Prix to the Scuderia and its fans.

Expectations though, with a 109 and 135-point deficit in the Drivers and Constructors’ Standings respectively, are tempered at the ‘Temple of Speed’ amid Red Bull’s 2022 domination.

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"I expect it to be a bit of a difficult weekend," Leclerc said. "We expect Red Bull to be stronger. The track doesn’t suit our car.

“We seem to be a bit quicker in the corners but on tracks like here it is not enough to gain back the advantage on the straights. I think that will be the case this weekend."

Verstappen is on a four-race winning streak after his home triumph in the Netherlands last week but comes to a track which has been an outlier for the mega-talented 24-year-old. Seven starts, zero podiums.

"The last few years, we have never been quick on the straights so when you come here, some tracks you can get away with it by trying to run a little lower downforce,” said Verstappen, who retired last year after an infamous collision with Hamilton.

“But then here everyone runs low downforce and then you cannot hide that any more. But this year we have been the opposite, we have been really quick on the straight and I hope we can show that again this weekend."