Lewis Hamilton ‘attitude’ under scrutiny as Ferrari ‘sacrifice’ missed
Lewis Hamilton and Fred Vasseur pose during a Ferrari team photoshoot at the 2025 Italian Grand Prix
Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi has criticised Lewis Hamilton’s “attitude” after he failed to offer teammate Charles Leclerc a tow in qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton entered the Italian Grand Prix with a five-place grid penalty hanging over him following a safety breach at the previous race in the Netherlands, where he failed to slow sufficiently for double-yellow flags.
Lewis Hamilton ‘attitude’ questioned after Charles Leclerc denied Monza tow
With a tow worth valuable lap time at the high-speed Monza circuit, it was expected that Hamilton would sacrifice himself to aid Leclerc’s hopes of securing pole position at Ferrari’s home race.
However, Leclerc was positioned second in the queue of cars – behind only Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull. which was nursing a reliability issue – for the final runs of Q3, with Hamilton directly behind his teammate.
Both drivers failed to improve on their final laps of qualifying, leaving Leclerc and Hamilton fourth and fifth respectively in the Q3 classification.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Leclerc finished Sunday’s race in the position he started, with Hamilton recovering from 10th on the grid after his penalty was applied to finish sixth.
Alesi made 201 F1 starts between 1989 and 2001, collecting his only victory with Ferrari at the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix.
And the Frenchman was left unimpressed by Hamilton for his failure to provide help to Leclerc in qualifying.
In his post-race column for Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Alesi wrote: “I didn’t like Hamilton’s attitude.
“He really could have, and perhaps should have, helped Leclerc in qualifying on Saturday.
“Everyone expected Lewis to behave like that, without even being asked to do so, given his words, the course of the season, and his first encounter with the Italian fans.”
“Even though a better grid position wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the race for Ferrari.
“It’s clear we’ll have to wait until next year [for Ferrari to bounce back], maintaining our faith and trust.”
It is unclear if the subject of Hamilton providing a tow for Leclerc cropped up in Ferrari briefings ahead of the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
Speaking after qualifying, Hamilton defended Ferrari’s approach to qualifying by arguing that he never provided his teammates with a tow during his F1 stints with Mercedes and McLaren.
He told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other publications at Monza: “Do I feel like they should have [forced me to give a tow to Leclerc]? I don’t.
“It’s not something I ever did in any of my other teams, potentially end up sacrificing one of the drivers.
“And I’ve already got a five-place penalty, so points-wise I needed to be as high as I could.”
More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
The Italian Grand Prix was ultimately won by Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver and reigning four-time World Champion, who converted pole position into a third victory of the F1 2025 season.
Verstappen won by 19.207 seconds, the biggest victory margin so far this campaign, as the dominant McLaren team missed out on a race win for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
Alesi was left highly impressed by Verstappen’s performance, in particular his feat of taking pole position without the aid of slipstream.
He added: “Verstappen: extraordinary, especially in qualifying when he took pole, alone, without a slipstream.
“And then he was aggressive as always at the start before adopting a wise and correct attitude when he handed the position back to [Lando] Norris.
“Then he repassed him and definitively pulled away.”
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