Schumacher-era Ferrari engineer: 'I don't see Hamilton in the title race'

Mazzola, who worked at Ferrari from 1988 to 2009 and was closely involved in the Michael Schumacher era, told Sky Italia that Ferrari was right not to impose an obvious hierarchy. His argument is straightforward: Hamilton remains 59 points behind championship leader Antonelli, level with Russell, and Ferrari would create more trouble than it solved by declaring a hierarchy prematurely.

Mazzola explained that any decision to favour one driver would 'kill' the other, adding that as long as Hamilton is not genuinely in contention for the Drivers' Championship, establishing a clear hierarchy would be wrong. It is a contrarian position within a debate that has been dominated by voices arguing Ferrari should back Hamilton to have an impact on the title battle.

Former F1 driver Glock sees it differently. "There's always a catch with Ferrari," he told Sky Deutschland. "Now it was the implementation of the perfect strategy that they failed to pull off."

Commenting on Ferrari's approach, Glock said: "Ferrari provided a textbook example of how not to do things with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc held Hamilton up for two or three laps too long. If they'd let Lewis through earlier, they might even have finished ahead of Kimi Antonelli."

The former F1 driver believes Ferrari should already be thinking in championship terms. "If you want to have a say in the World Championship, then you have to try to put Hamilton in a position where he loses as few points as possible to Antonelli or, in the best case, gains points," Glock argued. That view aligns more closely with what other pundits have said, including Guenther Steiner's call for Ferrari to make a ruthless decision.

After the Dutch Grand Prix, Russell retook second place in the F1 standings from Hamilton, while Lando Norris made the biggest points haul as the race winner in Zandvoort. With the Italian Grand Prix at Monza next on the calendar, the question of whether Ferrari will adjust its approach on home soil is only going to intensify.