Hamilton flags six-tenths straight-line deficit as Ferrari chase Mercedes at Monza

Lewis Hamilton raised concerns about Ferrari’s straight-line speed deficit to Mercedes following Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, admitting he was losing roughly six tenths of a second to George Russell on the straights during the second session.

Ferrari arrived at their home race with a new engine upgrade — permitted under the ADUO regulations — and started the weekend promisingly, with Charles Leclerc leading a Ferrari 1-2 in FP1. The picture shifted in FP2, however, as Russell topped the session for Mercedes ahead of Leclerc, with Hamilton fifth and 0.457 seconds off the pace overall.

“Straightline speed, it’s considerable to worry about,” Hamilton said. “Just looking at the deltas just there, I was losing something like six tenths to George, just in the straights. Which is something we need to look into.”

Hamilton also struggled with car balance across the session, describing the Ferrari as difficult to drive. “It was really, really hard to pull the lap out of the car. It was not an easy one to drive in FP2 for some reason. So we made a couple of changes but it shouldn’t have really been bad. So we might revert, but we’re going to look and see if we can make the car better.”

The Ferrari driver was uncertain whether the top speed gap stemmed from engine deployment or another factor, though he welcomed the upgraded power unit. The new engine is understood to produce around 15bhp more than its predecessor and is estimated to halve Ferrari’s power deficit to Mercedes.

“What we need to look into, if it’s deployment,” Hamilton said. “But the engine is an improvement which I’m really grateful for the guys back at the factory for working on. But our deployment schedule is different to the others, our competitors.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur echoed Hamilton’s assessment but cautioned against attributing the gap purely to engine output, pointing to drag and car weight as contributing factors.

“It seems like they maybe have less drag for the straights, so that’s something we need to definitely look at,” Vasseur said. “You have to keep in mind the performance in the straight line. It’s the drag, it’s the weight of the car, it’s everything. It’s not just the engine. We did a step for sure and we didn’t bring ADUO2 for nothing. But I think we still have a decent gap.”

With Monza’s long straights making top speed a decisive factor over the race weekend, Ferrari will need to close the gap before qualifying if they are to challenge Mercedes for pole position at their home circuit.