Open the curtains and Lewis Hamilton cannot fail to imbibe Ferrari, fact and myth.
He is staying in his motorhome rather than Hotel de la Ville, where drivers over the decades have laid their heads in preparation for the Italian Grand Prix.
He seeks privacy but is still sucking in the spirit of Monza.
A clutch of fans stand by the hotel’s electric gates, by dawn, daylight and dusk. They want selfies at best, but at least a sight of Hamilton, if he pops in for supper, or team-mate Charles Leclerc, a habitue behind the ivy-clad walls.
By evening the exquisite Derby Grill, with its terrace shielded from the prying eyes of the Tifosi, serves the best Lombardy cuisine.
Plutocrats of the paddock from other teams also dine together.
Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton will be the centre of attention at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix
Hamilton, pictured during Friday’s practice session,will backed by a big chunk of the crowd
In the days when he was Red Bull team principal Christian Horner might be spotted in conversation with his pal David Coulthard.
Or Williams’ Alex Albon with his chum George Russell, of Mercedes.
Sky’s Martin Brundle has long been an annual caller. Niki Lauda also liked Hotel de la Ville.
His name is in the air because the great Austrian’s clinching of his first world championship in Monza in 1975, third place on the day good enough for the title, is being toasted here half a century on.
From the hotel’s bedrooms one can see the Royal Villa, built by the Habsburgs, and the park in which the Autodromo sits, commissioned by Napoleon’s stepson Eugene of Beauharnais.
That’s how close the Ferrari top brass are from the lanes that lead them to their weekend’s workplace. Down one such tributary, a fan on Friday held a banner depicting Hamilton carrying a goat to the backdrop of a herd of said mammal.
It is AI-generated, which brings us to a discussion of the GOAT’s current status and the question of reality and illusion.
Those topics were brought into focus in the first practice session, which Hamilton finished fastest. Undoubtedly, Ferrari seemed attuned to the fast, low-downforce requirements of the ‘Temple of Speed’. Leclerc made up a Ferrari one-two.
British ace Hamilton is currently sixth in the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship standings
The timing screens offered a tonic for Hamilton, a five-time winner here in other colours, after taking a five-place grid penalty into Sunday’s race for failing to slow adequately under yellow flags in Zandvoort a week ago, a devastating handicap to carry into his maiden Monza in red.
But, on the question of illusion, was his engine turned up? Was it a glory run for the Tifosi? Can he possibly sustain this pace in qualifying on Saturday?
His fifth place in second practice may be a truer reflection. Leclerc was again second quickest, and he has no punishment to hamper him. A flicker of hope, then, for the home team, whose most notable paddock attendee was Piero Ferrari, the only surviving son of the Scuderia’s founding father, Enzo, Il Commendatore – the title bestowed on him by Mussolini.
Lando Norris, who needs a revival after his race-ending oil leak in Holland plunged him 34 points behind McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri at the summit of the championship table, led the way. One of the McLarens is likely to spoil the Ferrari party.
Yet, there was Leclerc’s unexpected win a year ago. The Monegasque bewitched his disciples with his fluent Italian on the Tarmac afterwards. And then an annual scene to rival any in global sport, as the fans flooding the start-finish straight, the air scarlet with flares.
Lewis has witnessed these theatrics for most of his 40 years, even when playing the villain. Never more so than for Mercedes in 2018 when he hit more high Cs than Pavarotti. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were vanquished, Monza stunned.