The China Mail - Car-crash season with Ferrari weighing on Hamilton ahead of Monza homecoming

Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton's arrival at Maranello made Ferrari's vociferous support dream of an end to an 18-year wait for a world title to be won by a driver in red.

Instead the 40-year-old trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by a whopping 200 points after a disastrous campaign with Ferrari which not only hasn't brought him any GP wins, but not even a single podium finish.

Last weekend's Dutch GP was the lowest point of the year for the Scuderia, with both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc crashing out of a race which had been preceded by the Briton twice spinning his car in practice.

Nonetheless Hamilton still appears to be happy to be with the sport's most famous team, telling Sky in Italy on Wednesday that it was "really special to remember that I'm a Ferrari driver" every time he comes to Italy.

Hamilton and Leclerc, who delighted fans by winning at Monza last year, were greeted enthusiastically by hordes of supporters at an event held in the shadow of Milan's famous Gothic cathedral.

"I saw with Charles what the atmosphere is like when you win at Monza with Ferrari, I was right by his side. It's the race you're waiting for," said Hamilton who has won at the "Temple of Speed" five times in his career, four times with Mercedes.

"Winning here with another team is a fantastic experience because you can still see the sea of red and the fans. But it must be really special receiving all that affection from the fans like Charles and other drivers who've won here with Ferrari did."

- McLaren dominance -

Hamilton has taken badly his failure to perform after switching to Ferrari following 12 years at Mercedes, referring to himself as "completely useless" at the Hungarian GP in an outburst which led to talk of the 40-year-old quitting the sport come the end of the year.

And his chances of making the Monza masses happy were further hit after the Dutch GP when he was handed a five-place grid penalty for this weekend after failing to slow down in a yellow flag zone on his way to the grid.

Hamilton and Leclerc are in truth little more than a photogenic sideshow as McLaren duo Piastri and Lando Norris battle for a drivers' crown which would be the first for the British team since 2008, when Ferrari won their last constructors' title.

Piastri has 309 points from 15 GPs and leads his teammate by 34 after Norris failed to finish the race in Zandvoort after suffering a mechanical failure in the closing laps.

Between them Piastri and Norris have won all but three races this season at the wheel of McLaren cars which have blown away the competition.

Not even reigning champion Max Verstappen has had enough to challenge McLaren and a 104-point gap separating him from Piastri suggests that his run of F1 titles is set to end at four in a row.

Dutchman Verstappen managed to finish second in front of his home fans last weekend, pouncing on Norris' misfortune, but he is realistic about his chances of putting pressure on Piastri over the final nine races of the season.

The famously blunt 27-year-old has already said that his goal for the rest of the campaign is to "just try to make the best of it", starting at a circuit where he has won twice.

G.Tsang--ThChM