Lewis Hamilton fearful as Ferrari boss sets new target for F1 star

Lewis Hamilton has said it will be a "while" before he gets the opportunity to break his F1 podium drought. The seven-time world champion is yet to secure a top-three finish in what has proven a challenging debut campaign with Ferrari. However, there have been encouraging signs of improvement in the fortnight following the summer break. After hitting rock bottom during the opening half of the season since joining the Scuderia, Hamilton has appeared reinvigorated across the past two race weekends at Zandvoort and Monza.

At the Italian Grand Prix, he secured fifth place in qualifying but was demoted to 10th on the starting grid due to a penalty carried forward from the previous race weekend. In front of the passionate Tifosi, he managed to gain positions on a track notoriously challenging for overtaking manoeuvres, ultimately finishing sixth. Team boss Frederic Vasseur declared after the race that he believed it was merely a question of when, not if, Hamilton would begin collecting silverware for his performances.

"Yes, we can expect him to be on the podium," the Frenchman informed journalists. Yet Hamilton provided a more measured assessment as he indicated Ferrari still lacked the speed to challenge for such results.

The Briton commented: "I think overall our performance was fairly decent, [but] we obviously do not have the pace of the cars much further ahead."

"So, competing for the top three is off the cards for a while, but we keep pushing and trying to extract more. This weekend built a lot on my confidence with the car, [but] definitely I am still not 100 percent comfortable in the car."

At Monza, Ferrari managed to match or even surpass the McLarens' pace on the lengthy straights.

However, they struggled through the corners, particularly Charles Leclerc in the opening phases as he tussled with Oscar Piastri for third position, ultimately overheating his rubber whilst pursuing the Australian.

Consequently, they stood no realistic prospect of challenging race victor Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull also proved devastatingly quick on the straights courtesy of its reduced downforce configuration.

Yet Hamilton believed they would have performed considerably better overall without his grid penalty that separated the two Ferrari machines.

He added: "I am sure we did not have the pace of the McLarens and the Red Bulls, but I definitely think Charles and I, if we were together, we could have had a strong race in perhaps keeping up with, maybe trying to keep up more with the guys further ahead.

"I really do not know. I just think they were just too fast, the guys further ahead, but I definitely think we would have been fifth, fourth."