The Italian Grand Prix is meant to reward speed above all else, and this year it did exactly that — ruthlessly. Three names left Monza worse off than they arrived. One watched its power unit programme’s credibility take a public hit in a single afternoon. One put his championship credibility into the barrier at the Alboreto corner, in front of his home crowd. And one may have quietly seen his Formula 1 career move a step closer to its end, without yet knowing it.
Aston Martin and Honda: A Power Deficit Laid Bare
Aston Martin and Honda had warned everyone this was coming. Since the summer break, Honda’s trackside leadership had been open about the fact that Monza — a circuit that rewards raw straight-line power above all else — would expose the one area the new power unit programme has not yet resolved. That warning proved accurate in the most public way possible.
Fernando Alonso’s car showed abnormal power unit data in qualifying, ending his final run early. Overnight repairs led to a pit lane start, and the race ended in retirement after he picked up damage running over a kerb. Lance Stroll’s weekend was undone separately by a hydraulics issue. Team principal Mike Krack confirmed both causes.
The wider story is less about bad fortune and more about a straightforward performance gap. Aston Martin and Honda are believed to be roughly 20 horsepower short of the field at a track where that number is the entire race. This is not a reversal of the genuine progress made since Hungary — the chassis has worked, and the new-specification power unit has shown promise. Monza simply stripped away every other variable and exposed the one weakness Honda has not yet fixed.
Madrid arrives next week on a far less power-sensitive circuit, and Aston Martin should look stronger there — but that shouldn’t be mistaken for a turnaround. Monza flattered nobody. On the weekend that mattered most for Honda’s credibility as a factory power unit supplier, both cars stopped early.
Ferrari’s Home Race Unravels as Leclerc Wrestles With Hamilton’s Shadow
Ferrari’s collapse at their home race needs little explanation of what happened — only of why. Starting third and fourth, the two cars nearly collided at the first chicane, forcing Hamilton into the gravel and costing him several places. A lap later, Leclerc — already dropped from second to fourth — lost the car approaching the Alboreto corner and hit the barriers hard enough to trigger a red flag. He was unhurt.
Team principal Fred Vasseur’s explanation was that Leclerc ran wide fighting Oscar Piastri and lost the rear on the dirty side of the track. That’s accurate, but it misses the more revealing pattern. In the space of two laps, Leclerc went from an aggressive move on his own teammate to throwing the car away at a corner he knows better than almost anyone on the grid — less a simple driving error, more a driver whose focus is on the wrong battle.
That battle is Hamilton. The seven-time champion, shaped by years of internal rivalry management, handled Monza with notable composure — avoiding contact rather than forcing it, recovering from eighth to finish sixth, and afterwards publicly praising the team’s development effort. It was a small but pointed display of the political skill that comes with experience, in sharp contrast to Leclerc’s brief, formal statement thanking the Tifosi.
Neither driver can be moved on: Leclerc is central to Ferrari’s identity, and Hamilton is the culture change the team has needed for over a decade. Managing that dynamic falls to Vasseur and chairman John Elkann, and neither has yet shown they can. McLaren have a milder version of the same problem, and it costs them tenths in qualifying. Ferrari’s version cost them a home Grand Prix — for contrast, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff simply waved his faster car through without argument on Sunday and banked 43 points from the weekend. That is the gap between the two teams, and it has nothing to do with the cars. Ferrari left their home race with eight points and a wrecked car.
Liam Lawson’s Red Bull Audition Ends in Frustration
The third loser is a harder case to make, because much of what went wrong for Liam Lawson genuinely was not his fault. His weekend started well — fourth in Friday practice — before a planned power unit change dropped him to the back of the grid. In Q2, he lost a lap after being blocked by Piastri, a call the stewards agreed with, penalising the McLaren driver three grid places.
Sunday brought a strong opening lap from the pit lane up to 11th, undone by contact with Nico Hülkenberg that damaged his front wing and cost more than 30 seconds in the pits. He finished 14th, while teammate Max Verstappen took the podium in the same car — a contrast team principal Laurent Mekies underlined himself, praising Verstappen’s drive while offering little more than sympathy for Lawson.
Two Monza weekends were meant to build a case for Lawson’s second Red Bull season. Instead, the ledger reads: one strong practice session, a qualifying lap taken by someone else, and a race ended by another driver’s mistake. He gets one more chance in Madrid, but with Verstappen in dominant form and Arvid Lindblad scoring points at Racing Bulls in his absence, the pressure is mounting fast. Beyond that, Lawson’s options for 2028 already look thin: Haas isn’t realistic, Williams is closed with both seats extended, and Aston Martin and Cadillac are not believed to be interested. On current evidence, there is one more season at Racing Bulls, and then not much else.
What Comes Next: Madrid and the Verdict Still to Come
Madrid brings a brand-new circuit for every team next weekend. Will Aston Martin’s improvement hold up away from Monza’s power sensitivity, can Ferrari manage its two title contenders, and does Lawson have one more strong weekend left in him?
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Italian Grand Prix, Monza 2026, Aston Martin F1, Honda F1, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing
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