Monza Thursday notebook: Hamilton bristles at ‘hardcore’ penalty, Williams pushes Sainz review, Hadjar wants his broken trophy, Verstappen says no to shorter races, Herta plots F2 detour
Media day at Monza has that odd mix of heat haze and hard edges. Ferrari rolled through Milan on Wednesday to a sea of red, then it was straight back to business as the paddock settled in for one of F1’s great weekends. The headlines? Lewis Hamilton’s still chewing over a penalty, Williams is asking stewards to look again at Carlos Sainz’s Dutch GP sanction, Max Verstappen swatted away talk of shorter races, and Isack Hadjar would very much like his snapped trophy back, thanks. Oh, and Colton Herta’s taking the long road to F1.
Hamilton on his Zandvoort penalty: “pretty hardcore”
Lewis Hamilton heads into the Italian Grand Prix with a five-place grid drop after the stewards ruled he didn’t slow sufficiently for yellow flags on a reconnaissance lap at Zandvoort. He was blunt about it.
“It’s obviously not black and white,” he said. “If you look at the report, I did lift, but to their liking, not enough… To get the penalty and get penalty points was pretty hardcore, but I learned from it, and there’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forwards.”
Make no mistake, Monza is not a track where you want to be starting further back, but Hamilton’s tone was one of acceptance rather than outrage. Expect qualifying to be loaded with jeopardy as Mercedes tries to mitigate the damage.
Williams seeks right of review on Sainz penalty
Williams has triggered F1’s right of review process over the penalty handed to Carlos Sainz for contact with Liam Lawson in the Dutch Grand Prix, maintaining Sainz wasn’t the guilty party. The right of review requires “a significant and relevant new element” that wasn’t available at the time of the decision — not an easy bar to clear.
Sainz, who went through the incident with the stewards midweek, didn’t hide his annoyance. “As soon as they got all the evidence right… it was very clear to me that probably the decision taken wasn’t the best one,” he said. “We are trying to see if we can come up with enough evidence to change the outcome… I still firmly believe it was a very poor penalty that I received in a bad judgment.”
Whether it moves the needle is another question, but it’s not often you see a driver and a rival team singing from the same hymn sheet.
Hadjar’s broken trophy saga rolls on
Isack Hadjar’s first F1 silverware will come in two pieces — literally. His Dutch GP trophy split in half, and while the maker will produce a replacement (he’ll get to keep that too), the Racing Bulls rookie says the broken one is the one that matters.
“Where is the broken one? That’s the question,” he laughed in Monza’s TV pen. “We don’t care about the new one, because it’s not been part of the grand prix history… I want the broken one because it’s part of my podium journey. The new one doesn’t smell of alcohol, like the champagne and whatever.”
It’s a charmingly old-school sentiment from a driver who’s quickly making a name for himself.
Verstappen: shorter races aren’t the fix
With F1 boss Stefano Domenicali musing about ways to spice up Sundays — including shorter distances — Max Verstappen wasn’t buying it.
“You cannot always make it exciting,” he said. “If it’s always exciting, it becomes boring too… It always needs to be a surprise. Sometimes it can be surprisingly exciting, sometimes… surprisingly boring. I’m more of a traditional guy. It’s more important that all the teams are closer, because then you get more racing anyway.”
Hard to argue with the premise: compress the field competitively, and you won’t need to compress the race.
Herta’s lesser-trodden route to F1
Colton Herta, nine-time IndyCar race winner and runner-up in that championship, has signed up for the 2026 Formula 2 season as part of Cadillac’s push toward F1. The logic is straightforward if unforgiving: he needs FIA Super Licence points, and F2 pays out 40 in one go for finishing in the top three.
Switching from IndyCar to Pirelli-shod F2 machinery means new tracks, different tyres, different race craft. Those around him say it’s a risk he’s embracing to keep the F1 dream alive. The path is unusual, but if he adapts quickly, it’s also the most direct.
Monza mood
Ferrari arrives to its home race with the usual pressure-cooker atmosphere and a fanbase that won’t accept anything less than a fight at the front. Red Bull remains the yardstick, but Monza can play tricks with tow games and traffic in qualifying, and the slipstream can keep things interesting on Sunday.
Between Hamilton’s grid drop, the Sainz-Williams review intrigue and a rookie protecting a broken trophy like it’s the crown jewels, there’s no shortage of storylines. It’s Monza. It never does quiet.
