2024 Italian GP: Post Race Analysis

One of the truly special tracks remaining in Formula 1, though it's unfortunate that passing is such a struggle at this track. While there was an element of what if throughout the race, there really wasn't a lot of action on track, not even from the mid field.

Ferrari wins in Italy. There is something very very special when Ferrari win at Monza, especially from such a likeable guy like Charles Leclerc. It's very true that Ferrari had nothing to lose with attempting the one stop strategy, but give Charles all the credit for making his tires last. Also give credit to Ferrari for bringing an upgrade that actually works, and to Vasseur for prioritizing race pace. Even Carlos had a good result given their car was definitely not the fastest today. How can anyone not get goosebumps with a Ferrari driver on that incredible podium with all those tifosi below them? Incredible!

McLaren continue to lose races when having a dominant car. Lando appears to be feeling this as he watches win after win slip away in a season that he genuinely has/had an opportunity to win the WDC. Once again he failed to lead the first lap after taking pole, then he burned through his tires. Oscar drove the better race. A brilliant aggressive but clean pass on his teammate in turn 4. Controlled the race but tire wear was still an issue. Unfair to blame their strategy team as 10 out of 10 teams make that same call in their position. It just didn't work out. With a car that fast, they should have controlled the pace better from the start.

Mercedes were not really close to McLaren, but were on par with Ferrari. Hamilton drove another solid race but nothing extraordinary. George has quali pace, the grid positions, and good race pace, but he continues to make mistakes that are incredibly costly. A season he has looked much better than Hamilton, yet he loses points to Lewis once again.

Red Bull have fallen to the 4th best team. They were nowhere this race. Verstappen in particular looked off his game. A terrible qualifying by his standards and couldn't do much in the race. His comments and body language suggest he is losing confidence in his team as well. Perez had an okay race, though a dangerous block on Russell nearly cost him. To go from 30 seconds ahead of everyone to 30 seconds behind in half a season is unheard of. There is something going on that us fans are not aware of.

Williams got to test their post summer break upgrade and it proves to be a success. Albon up in the points. Yes he did do a 1 stop strat, but the car looks to be in a spot to challenge for points. Colapinto makes his F1 debut and drove a very satisfying race. 14 seconds off of Albon with very little seat time is a extremely positive already. Absolutely the right decision to get rid of Logan.

Haas had a battle today. Kevin Magnussen had more adventures than anyone. The contact with Gasly easily could have been considered a racing incident. Context does matter in every situation. He was along side in the braking, though he did lock up and lose control. Contact was made, but zero damage and neither lost any significant time or track position. At worst that is a 5 second penalty with 0 penalty points. The fact they also gave him 2 points on his license which induces a race ban comes down to popularity. Had Lando, Lewis, Charles, or any fan favorite driver done the same things he has, they would barely have seen penalties at all. Hulkenberg got pushed around early, had to make an early front wing change, plus took out Tsunoda. He had a rough day as well but never recovered. It's too bad because the Haas looked pretty decent in race pace.

Aston Martin just misses out on a point. Alonso feels they have the 7th best car now and he might be right. Another catastrophic failure by the Stroll led team. Lance Stroll has lost momentum as of late and not looked particularly good. It was strange to see AMR pit Lance late in the race for softs in what a appeared to be an attempt at fastest lap given they were so far out of the points. If this is true, why do they care about taking that point away from Max/RBR? Did Lance fail at his attempt? Did he back off when Lando was going for fastest lap? Not enough information at the moment, but it was odd.

RB looked like they had a chance at points. Ricciardo had a scruffy race that gave him a penalty and then the team made a big mistake by touching the car during the pitstop and caused an extra 10 second penalty. Tsunoda got punted and forced to retire so who knows what he could have done.

Alpine perhaps didn't have the best low downforce package and weren't that strong. Ocon ended up getting the better of Gasly but it meant nothing in the end.

Sauber still the worst team and Bottas has completely obliterated Zhou this season. Quite a shocking demise Zhou, or perhaps a very impressive reassurance from Bottas. Too bad they are are dead last in pace.

Driver of the Day: Charles Leclerc. Even before the strategy played out, Leclerc was in the mix with the much faster McLarens. The fact he had such good pace and kept the tires alive is incredible. Typically Leclerc needs to be in front to win a race, but not today. Might be the best win of his career.

 

I think so. There are rumors of Red Bull being forced to remove or perhaps modify parts on the car that were perhaps borderline illegal. There is the brake system rule clarification. The Red Bull was a dominant car to begin the season. The top speed was the best, DRS worked great, extremely efficient downforce to drag ratio, fastest car with the amazing tire wear. The balance was good and Verstappen was a happy camper. Now the top speed advantage is gone, DRS is the same as others, the efficiency is much less than other cars, tire wear has become an issue, the balance is horrible and Verstappen is unhappy. There is enough facts that suggest something has gone on with Red Bull. A team like Red Bull is smart enough to know when and what changed and are very unlikely to change the car to become slower.

I don't think it's simply a development race issue. If it is, again there is something strange going on. Up and down the grid we have heard the same statement that eventually the cars will converge to the same design and that big changes are less and less and that upgrades will mean tiny improvements in lap time. This is still important since it is a fact that 1 or 2 tenths can make a big difference within the mid field. Red Bull had a good half second advantage in race pace and Max could win by 30 seconds with ease if he wanted. That was this season. Within months despite the budget and resource restrictions, McLaren, Mercedes, and perhaps even Ferrari have closed that gap massively.

McLaren and Mercedes both share the same PU. Williams does too and we have seen some mid season improvements from them. AMR also is Mercedes power but continue to drop, but they have a history of that. We know the PU's are locked from performance developments and only so many PU's can even be used. Mercedes show up with bubble on the nose that covers some sort of suspension trick and suddenly they have unlocked performance that has took them to be the best car at times. Mass dampers and Frick systems have been banned long ago yet we have seen nothing into that. Red Bull continue to complain about McLaren and Mercedes front wings. I'm not sure why, I don't see something illegal about them but I guess they do.

As I said, we have seen an unprecedented change in performance with Red Bull and now the top 4 money making teams are now putting on a show which makes F1 fun to watch. It's kind of weird.

 

I don't believe in any world does a brake trick equate to 6 tenth or more reduction in performance. McLaren had the 3rd pedal which did the same thing in 1998 and once it was gone they didn't lose much performance. No question it would be helpful, but assuming Red Bull had the device and were forced to remove it, I still think there was something else.

Since the FIA have never officially penalized Red Bull, it's likely we may never know.

 

Newey spilling secrets on all the ways he bent or broke the rules would be endlessly fascinating.

 

I really need to read that book.

 

We may need more data. Apparently (and the data supports it), Max had a PU issue. On a track like Monza that can be major. In the end he did still finish 17 seconds ahead of his teammate, but we have seen much bigger gaps before.