Italian Grand Prix 2026 Media Day: Hamilton’s F40 Carries His Own Number, Antonelli Bets on Monza Chaos

Ferrari’s home race started with a car nobody else could have driven onto the grounds. Lewis Hamilton arrived at Monza in his own F40, bought and restored over months, only to discover the mechanics stripping it down had found the engine stamped with the number 44. His own race number, on a car built decades before he was born. He called it fate. Ferrari’s four-tenths-a-lap deficit to the front is the number that matters underneath all of it, and what this circuit’s power unit upgrade is supposed to start closing. Kimi Antonelli sat in the room leading the championship at his home race and revealed he’s taking a deliberate grid penalty to do it, betting Monza’s energy-starved layout gives him the best shot of the year to climb from the back. Bearman, Gasly and Stroll all arrived with upgrade stories of their own, and Lawson found out on Wednesday he’s back in the Red Bull seat again. Monza’s press room on Thursday had a lot to get through before Sunday even arrived.

Key Points – Italian Grand Prix 2026 Media Day

• Hamilton’s personally owned F40 was found stamped with engine number 44, his own race number, arriving at Monza for Ferrari’s home race
• Hamilton confirms Ferrari have been losing four tenths a lap on power alone and calls the Monza upgrade a step rather than the full gap closed
• Antonelli takes a deliberate grid penalty at his home race, naming Monza’s energy-starved layout as the best track on the calendar to recover position, with a tow arrangement for Russell discussed with the team
• Bearman: Haas bring their most comprehensive upgrade since Canada, though he remains cautious about simulator correlation until it runs on track
• Colapinto’s Alpine deal is confirmed through 2027, news Gasly welcomed, and he describes Monza as close to a home race living in Milan
• Lawson deputises for the still-recovering Hadjar again, only informed on Wednesday, while Stroll credits a Hungary chassis upgrade and a new Honda power unit at Zandvoort for close to three seconds of gain, though the car remains down on power

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton has been chasing a specific F40 for a while. Low mileage, a real story behind it, not one that had been through a repaint or a quiet restoration to look better than it was. He found one where the previous owner drove it 69 kilometres from Maranello to his home and never started it again. Door never opened. Dust cover on for years. Hamilton had it recommissioned so he could actually drive it, and arrived at Monza in it on Thursday morning. When the mechanics stripped it down to check everything before that, they found the engine stamped with the number 44, his own number, on a car built decades before he ever sat in a Ferrari. Hamilton said he didn’t believe it when they told him, and called it “very much like fate.”

The car arrived alongside a Schumacher-inspired livery for the weekend and a shirt carrying seven stars, which Hamilton pointed out matches his own seven championships. He hadn’t seen the livery itself before the press conference but tied the tribute back to growing up watching Schumacher race for Ferrari on Sunday mornings. None of that changes what’s actually chasing the team on track. Ferrari brought a power unit upgrade to Monza, and Hamilton was direct about the size of the deficit it’s addressing.

Hamilton was just as keen to stress the change inside Ferrari. The factory, he says, has more focus and a clearer direction than it did 12 months ago.

Kimi Antonelli

Antonelli leads the championship and arrives at his home race starting from the back. The team took a grid penalty deliberately, and Antonelli explained exactly why Monza was the race picked to do it: an energy-starved circuit that throws up more overtaking chances than almost anywhere else on the calendar, more places to play differently, and a combination that gives him the best shot all year of climbing back through the field.

He confirmed a tow arrangement with George Russell has already been discussed inside the team, and that he’ll help if asked, given he isn’t fighting for pole from the back anyway. Realistic target for Sunday is top five, by his own estimate, dependent on how close Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull run at the front. Asked what it means to lead the championship into Monza as an Italian, the comparison put to him was Alberto Ascari in 1953, 73 years ago. He was also asked about the FP1 crash that ended his first visit to this circuit two years ago.

Two years between crashing out of his home circuit and leading the championship into it.

Oliver Bearman

Haas have gone quiet on upgrades for a while and Bearman said so without being asked twice. Monza gets the biggest package the team have brought since Canada. This isn’t the circuit where a drag-sensitive car shows its full hand.

He flagged simulator turnaround as one of the genuine constraints of being a small team, and said he’s reserving judgement on how the upgrade feels until it’s run on track. Last year’s second half was strong off the back of upgrading while others weren’t.

Pierre Gasly

Gasly lives in Milan, so Monza is about as close to a home race as he’ll get. Waking up in his own bed, his own coffee before the drive to the track. Having Flavio Briatore in the team adds to it, and so does history: his first Grand Prix win came at this circuit, back in 2020, and he said that memory alone gives the paddock a different energy for him every time he walks in.

Form-wise, he pointed straight to Zandvoort as the turning point. Eighth in the Sprint, tenth in the Grand Prix, a result he admitted was tricky to fully capitalise on given the compressed Sprint weekend, but one that told him the car had taken a genuine step. Before the summer break, Alpine had dropped outside the top ten with nothing to fight for. Now they’re back in it.

He also arrived off the back of confirmation that Colapinto stays at Alpine into 2027.

Gasly also backed Norris’s decision to set up his own junior racing team, calling it a great initiative and a fellow driver giving something back to the sport.

Liam Lawson

Lawson is back in the Red Bull seat again, deputising for Hadjar for a second race weekend running. Zandvoort was a Sprint weekend, thrown in with next to no preparation and stressful by his own admission, though he called it a good one in the end. This time it’s a normal three-practice-session weekend rather than a Sprint.

Since Zandvoort he’s been splitting simulator time between both cars, and called going back and forth between the Racing Bulls and the Red Bull the hardest part of the whole situation. The two cars are different everywhere bar the power unit, he said: the Red Bull’s high-speed grip stands out immediately, but the bigger adjustment is the overall balance and what comes back through the steering.

Lance Stroll

Stroll reckons Aston Martin have found close to three seconds over the last couple of races. Some came from the chassis. Some from Honda. A chassis upgrade around Hungary brought a genuine step in downforce, the car going round corners quicker than it did before that weekend. Then Honda brought a new power unit to Zandvoort, the team’s last race, though there’s still plenty of work left on the drivability side.

Monza, with its long straights, is one of the harder circuits on the calendar for a car that’s still down on power. He was clear the team’s focus for the rest of the season is on tracks that reward chassis over engine.

Coffee Corner Take

Lewis Hamilton arrived in the Monza paddock in style today. An engine stamped 44, complete with a number 44 numberplate, and a tribute to seven-time champion Michael Schumacher lined up, quite fitting that it also appears on the car of the man who is equal to Schumacher for championships. We heard the story this week of how Hamilton had bought and restored his dream car, an F40, like the one we saw him announce his arrival at Ferrari with. Bought before anyone knew he’d be driving it into Monza this weekend, it isn’t a story I’d have believed if a press officer pitched it to me. He didn’t oversell it either. You could see him light up in the press conference talking about it, alongside memories of hearing the Chain, F1’s old theme song. As F1 looks to the future, it’s a weekend which Ferrari are also choosing to honour the past.

Four tenths a lap is the real number that matters this weekend though. That’s not a gap you close with one upgrade on one weekend, and Hamilton didn’t pretend otherwise. What he did say, the North Star line, the different focus to last year, that’s the more interesting factor from a driver who, despite telling everyone how big the gap is, sits in joint P2 in the championship knowing the championship leader is heading to the back of the grid this weekend. A team that knows what it’s chasing behaves differently to one that’s just trying things. Whether that translates to a famous win in front of their adoring Tifosi on Sunday at a power circuit is a separate question entirely.

Antonelli is starting last on purpose, at his home race, while leading the championship. It’s the kind of decision that only makes sense if you trust the car underneath you completely. Antonelli has grown in stature this season, arriving here as the sport’s youngest championship leader, just two years on from wrecking his own FP1 here. That trust in the car is earned rather than assumed, and his answer about it, short and blunt, tells you his mindset heading into the weekend, celebrating his 20th birthday last week.

Everyone else in that room is fighting their own battle. Bearman’s still waiting to trust an upgrade off the simulator, still not knowing his 2027 future. Stroll knew Monza was never going to suit his car this year. Lawson found out his weekend plans on a Wednesday and is focused on showing Red Bull management what he can do as he looks to secure his 2027 future, knowing a strong performance in the points for the main team will help him no end this weekend. They may seem smaller stories than Hamilton’s, but they’re the ones that make up a season.