Oscar Piastri heads for the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna from this weekend with the momentum of three successive victories behind him while he seeks to consolidate his offer for the world title of Formula 1 pilots. But with the Circus F1 which launches his big top in Europe for the first time this season with a `Triple head ” of races, because great attention will be focused on Ferrari’s difficulties McLaren or the reigning champion of Red Bull, Max Verstappen. After six ineffective outings in the first six races, the Italian team and their brand champion seven times Lewis Hamilton appear in front of the “tifosi” for the first time on the home soil of the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari.
For Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc, he was a disappointing opening spell with the Briton, in particular, who has trouble finding a pace and real performances in his Ferrari – and the team promising a series of upgrades to solve the problems of the SF25.
Hamilton won the Shanghai sprint, but has not yet obtained a podium with Ferrari in a Grand Prix and the team is already 152 points from the McLaren outfit of Piastri.
In Miami, he and Leclerc have been left to rebuild seventh place.
“For my part, this year, we went to directions quite extreme in terms of configuration to extract a little more from the car,” said Leclerc, who is in his seventh year with Ferrari.
“And it is always very difficult to compare the parameters of the drivers to explain things.”
‘Special opportunity’
For Hamilton, it was a difficult experience and this week, he abandoned social media distractions in unsubscribe to everyone on Instagram where he has nearly 40 million followers.
This cancellation included Ferrari and his own dog Roscoe.
While Hamilton would make his RED in Italy, his successor at Mercedes, the 18 -year -old Italian Kimi Antonelli, made his first home appearance with the “ Arrows Silver ” who, like most teams, will bring an improved package on the required and classic track tight between the city, the river and the river.
“He grew up in Bologna, nearby, and this will be a special opportunity for him,” said Mercedes’ team Toto Wolff.
“But it is also a race like any other that is worth 25 points and that’s all that matters at the end.”
As a youngest pilot to take a pole F1 position, for a sprint race, to define a fastest round and to lead a race, Antonelli took a sensational start alongside George Russell.
But it was Piastri who impressed the most by his balance and his consistency to distance 16 points from Lando Norris and 32 BC, third, who exceeded his car to stay in the running.
“We are back in Europe with different types of circuits, different natures of the circuit,” said the head of the Red Bull team, Christian Horner.
“McLaren has made the car beat right now. It’s quite clear and they are going to be difficult to beat in the next races.”
After the rapid, fluid and technical circuit of Imola, where it is difficult to exceed, the roadshow moves in the streets of Monaco where a new regulation requiring a second compulsory stand is introduced, then Spain.
This weekend will also see the return of the Argentinian pilot Franco Colapinto to F1 while he replaces the Australian Jack Doohan in Alpine whose boss of the Oliver Oakes team resigned unexpectedly last week.
COLAPINTO ran in nine races for Williams last season.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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