Hamilton looking like old self, but Ferrari's woes continue

The tifosi, the super-enthusiastic followers of Ferrari's racing fortunes, always crave solid results. But never more so than when their beloved red cars race on home ground.

- David Tremayne

The tifosi, the super-enthusiastic followers of Ferrari's racing fortunes, always crave solid results. But never more so than when their beloved red cars race on home ground. Thus the Emilia-Romagna GP at Imola is second only to the Italian GP at Monza in their hearts.

And like most intense fans, they don't take well to failure.

They were remarkably silent here on May 17, as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton prepared to occupy the sixth row of the grid, behind the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, Max Verstappen's Red Bull and George Russell's Mercedes.

Now all of those might, on 2025 form, have been expected to be in such positions. But here's the ouch moment: They were joined by the hitherto unimpressive Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll (that's no misprint), the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, and Isack Hadjar's RB.

If anything illustrated how far the Prancing Horse have stumbled in this new season, that is a pretty good barometer.

Last year, two days after the Abu Dhabi GP, McLaren boss Zak Brown told me that they reckoned his team had won the world championship for constructors by three-tenths of a second.