Senior Italian journalist Leo Turrini slammed Ferrari for not using Lewis Hamilton to give a tow to his teammate Charles Leclerc during the 2025 Italian Grand Prix qualifying session. The Italian side missed a chance to secure pole position after both of its drivers failed to improve on their final timed laps in the Q3 session, finishing in P4 and P5, respectively.
Throughout the qualifying hour, both Hamilton and Leclerc seemed competitive against the likes of Max Verstappen and the duo of McLaren and were in contention for pole position. However, with a five-place grid penalty looming over his head, Hamilton had a vague chance to improve in terms of his position for the main race.
While many expected Lewis Hamilton to play the team game and help his teammate Charles Leclerc with a tow in the final run in Monza, it was the latter who came out in front of his seven-time F1 world champion teammate.
On his column for QNBlog, Turrini asked the team's strategy and claimed that the decision-making lacked common sense, saying:
“About the tow, like Leclerc said, it could have been handled differently. It should have been. It's about the credibility of those who run the Scuderia. Watching Leclerc ahead of Hamilton in the last lap isn't a defeat, it's an insult to common sense.”
Lewis Hamilton will begin the race from P10 after his grid drop, while Charles Leclerc will start the race from the second row of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc share their opinion on towing in Monza
Ferrari racer Lewis Hamilton said that he has never given a tow to one of his teammates, as he believed that it would require sacrificing one of the racers during the qualifying session.
Speaking with Motorsport.com, the 40-year-old rejected the idea of giving a tow and said:
"Do I feel that they should have? No, it's not something I ever did in any of my other teams, and I'm 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,"
While Leclerc revealed that there had been no internal discussions regarding the situation, adding:
"It wasn't decided that way. Yeah, it's something we'll discuss with the team now, but obviously we need to... It's always tricky to get it perfectly right, and Lewis is still fighting to be starting as further up as possible, so yeah, we'll discuss about it, but I don't think it's the main point of today."
Charles Leclerc started the 2024 edition of the Italian Grand Prix from P4 and went on to claim a famous victory, hoping for a similar result during the main race. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton aimed to return to more competitive positions as quickly as possible.