A Day to Remember for Ferrari
Image: Scuderia Ferrari HP
It was an absolutely classic weekend of racing at Monza, better known as the ‘Temple of Speed’, where Charles Leclerc took his seventh career victory despite McLaren having an overwhelming pace advantage.
The 74th running of the Italian Grand Prix saw a tense end to the race with the usually quick Red Bulls out of contention for the weekend, as Max Verstappen took his joint-worst finish of the season so far. Let’s get into the key highlights of the event.
Qualifying
Image: Williams Racing
Q1
The first qualifying session of the weekend saw a near-miss from Carlos Sainz as he lost control of his Ferrari at the second Lesmo curve. Calamity was avoided, however, and the session continued with rookie Franco Colapinto finding his way into the gravel trap, throwing up debris on the racing line.
The drivers out in Q1 included Tsunoda, Stroll, Colapinto, and both Sauber cars.
Q2
With the session delayed due to Colapinto’s journey into the gravel trap, an unsafe release was under investigation when Oscar Piastri almost collided in the pitlane with Max Verstappen, but no penalty was awarded. Fernando Alonso was on the fringe of making it into Q3 but put in a subpar laptime, leaving the Spaniard down in P11.
Alonso on his Q2 exit:
“I think P11 is better than expected”
The bottom-five in Q2 were: Alonso, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Gasly, and Ocon.
Q3
The first runs of the final session saw the McLaren cars lead the way by some margin, with Verstappen struggling in only P8. The Ferraris couldn’t pull a clean lap together to challenge the McLarens and the Red Bulls seemed to suffer from a lack of grip.
Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell set great laptimes to take them up the leaderboard, with Russell taking his W15 up into P3. But it was a brilliant effort from Lando Norris to take pole yet again, just under a tenth in front of teammate Oscar Piastri to take McLaren’s 65th front-row lockout.
The top ten for qualifying: Norris, Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez, Albon, and Hulkenberg.
Il Predestinato returns
Image: Scuderia Ferrari HP
It’s the one that all Ferrari drivers want to win - Charles Leclerc’s now done it twice. Perhaps there was something poetic in this victory as it was five years to the day Leclerc took his maiden win in Belgium.
The SF24 has been a handful for both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz across the entire weekend, struggling with copious amounts of understeer, similar to the issues that have been plaguing the Red Bulls. Leclerc put in a great lap in qualifying to take P4 but was left wanting more as he was confident that he could challenge the McLarens come race day.
The Monegasque did exactly that by slotting his Ferrari into P3 after Russell misjudged his braking point into the first corner. He sat back and watched the squabbling McLaren cars trade blows as Oscar Piastri took the lead into the Turn 4 chicane from Norris.
Image: Scuderia Ferrari HP
The strategy from Ferrari was a masterclass opting for a one-stop rather than the two-stop strategy chosen by McLaren. Although Piastri and Norris had a clear pace advantage, Leclerc and Sainz had track position, which meant the McLarens would have to overtake on track to win the race.
Carlos Sainz defended brilliantly from the papaya cars and settled for a well-deserved P4 finish on his 30th birthday. Piastri drove his heart out to catch Leclerc in the closing laps of the race, crossing the finish line just two seconds behind the Ferrari.
Leclerc on his second Italian GP victory:
“Obviously I want to win as many races as possible, and the World Championship as soon as possible, but these are the two most important races of the season and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special.”
The win was the result of an array of upgrades brought by Ferrari to its home race but might hinder its performance for the remaining eight races of the season. “Whether it will be the same for the rest of the season, I doubt so,” said Leclerc.
Papaya Rules Don’t Apply Here
Image: McLaren F1
It was supposed to be Vettel’s run of nine consecutive victories, according to Andrea Stella, team principal of McLaren. The confidence about Norris overcoming a 70-point deficit to Verstappen in the driver’s championship and closing a now eight-point lead to Red Bull in the constructor’s championship.
McLaren had the pace to dominate the weekend yet again like it did in Zandvoort a week ago. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the team from Woking as the team had to contend with Piastri being in the mix as he was held up by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort, finishing only P4.
Norris briefly held onto his lead into Turn 1 but got a bad exit out of the tight chicane, inviting Piastri to send it down the inside at Turn 4. This, coupled with a coin-flip two-stop strategy, led McLaren to a crushing defeat.
The worst of it came when McLaren allowed both drivers to fight each other, dubbing it ‘Papaya Rules’ which is some form of team orders, as speculated by many on social media.
The McLarens did make the most of the pace and finish 2nd and 3rd but were scrutinized by many as to why the team didn’t swap its drivers around, especially when Norris needs to make as big of a dent in Verstappen’s championship lead as possible.
Upon speaking to Sky Sports F1, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said that the ‘Papaya Rules’ were not a conventional form of team orders.
Zak Brown’s post race interview with Sky Sports:
"We have always believed in having two number one drivers. That has always been McLaren's way and it can be very difficult to manage"
Considering that Oscar Piastri’s manager is Mark Webber, who knows a thing or two about team orders, we don’t think he’ll go down without a fight. Whether McLaren will rue not swapping its drivers will have to be seen later in the season. With Red Bull’s grip on both championships weakening with every race, McLaren’s legendary challenge will most likely continue in Azerbaijan next week.
Simply Not Lovely
Image: Red Bull Oracle Racing
It seems like ages ago when Max Verstappen claimed his tenth consecutive win, smashing Sebastian Vettel’s record. Fast forward two years and the 61-time race winner struggled all weekend with understeer and a general ‘off feeling’ about his RB20, labelling it as an “undrivable monster.”
With a subpar qualifying result, Verstappen wasn’t even targeting the podium, as the Dutchman had doubts whether his Red Bull could even remotely challenge the McLarens, Ferraris, and Mercedes.
Verstappen on Red Bull’s recent performance:
“At the moment both championships are not realistic”
It was a much better weekend overall for Sergio Perez, who made a good effort to get his car into Q3 and finish in eighth, the same position he started in. With this sudden drop in pace haemorrhaging points for the Milton Keynes team, questions need to be asked whether the once bulletproof combination of Verstappen and Red Bull has now cracked under pressure.
Final race classification
1 - Charles LECLERC
2 - Lando NORRIS
3 - Oscar PIASTRI
4 - Carlos SAINZ
5 - Lewis HAMILTON
6 - Max VERSTAPPEN
7 - George RUSSELL
8 - Sergio PEREZ
9 - Alexander ALBON
10 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN
11 - Fernando ALONSO
12 - Franco COLAPINTO
13 - Daniel RICCIARDO
14 - Esteban OCON
15 - Pierre GASLY
16 - Valtteri BOTTAS
17 - Nico HULKENBERG
18 - ZHOU Guanyu
19 - Lance STROLL
DNF - Yuki TSUNODA
