Lewis Hamilton turns Singapore penalty into a Ferrari rallying cry: ‘The other story’ matters
Lewis Hamilton left Marina Bay with eighth place after a post‑race penalty, and, perhaps more importantly, with a very deliberate message for Ferrari’s direction of travel. The seven-time champion cut through the weekend noise on social media, urging focus on “the other story” — how the team responds when things go wrong.
On paper, it was another bruising night under the lights. Hamilton crossed the line seventh but was handed five seconds for repeated track limits violations while defending late on, dropping behind a fuming Fernando Alonso to P8 in the final classification. The infractions came as he battled worsening brake issues — the same gremlin Charles Leclerc had been nursing since the early laps — after Ferrari rolled the dice on a two-stop strategy.
Ferrari even swapped their cars in the final stint to give Hamilton a run at Kimi Antonelli for fifth. That push fizzled as the brake problems escalated, and the fight became one of survival, Hamilton clinging on from Alonso on the road by a few tenths before the penalty sealed it.
There’s a thin silver lining in there: Hamilton has steadily realigned his pace with Leclerc in recent rounds. But it’s slim comfort when the podium drought stretches to five races and Hamilton still hasn’t stood on the rostrum in red. Ferrari, locked in a tight scrap with Mercedes and Red Bull for runner‑up in the Constructors’ standings, can’t afford many more scruffy Sundays. As it stands, Mercedes hold second, 25 points up on Ferrari, with six rounds remaining.
Hamilton’s perspective, though, was measured and unmistakably leadership‑tinged. After a personally difficult week following the death of his dog, Roscoe, he framed Singapore as a case study in resilience rather than another post‑race inquest.
“After a tough week, it feels good to be home,” he wrote. “I had some time to reflect on my journey from Singapore and the main emotion I’m feeling is gratitude… The media headlines only tell one story — one where we don’t get things quite right, or things don’t go our way. But what I have been focused on over the past few months is the other story. The one about how this team responds when things go wrong. How we get back up, and we go again.”
He called the race a “perfect example,” arguing Ferrari nailed the big calls but were undone by reliability. “We got the strategy right, but the brake issue set us back just when momentum was building. So now we get back in the factory, learn from this last race, and plan for the next one.”
There was also a pointed reminder of what the badge demands. “I’m really proud of this team and want to help deliver the results they and the tifosi deserve… but this is Ferrari. Progress alone is not enough. To achieve greatness we need to go further, be better.”
Strip away the Instagram gloss and the message is straight from the garage floor: the SF‑25 has flashes of speed, the operations are sharper, but too many weekends are being defined by firefighting — whether it’s brake temperatures, tyre windows, or track‑limits tightropes in high‑pressure moments. That’s fixable, and quickly, but only if Ferrari turns “progress” into clean, penalty‑free Sundays.
Hamilton’s mindset will play well in Maranello. He’s seen title‑winning machines made and unmade by the small stuff, and his post‑race note read less like damage control and more like a captain’s log. The results column still stings — and he knows it — but the tone said: hold the line, keep the gains, kill the errors.
Six to go. The margins for second in the championship are thin, the narrative even thinner. Hamilton’s betting on the other story. Forza Ferrari.
