Since when has Elton come from the back in a crap car? The Mercedes is the class of the field, once they sort the set up correctly, it flies and is a second a lap faster. When he gets properly beaten thee is always ******** excuses from him, Toto, his fans about why he supposedly couldn’t do it, and it’s always someone else’s fault, never his own... the guy is a narcissistic diva
At the risk of incurring the wrath of Sid, my impression is that Hamilton, Bottas, and Wolff were all pretty gracious in the post-race interviews. Anyway, it was a great race and a great result for any F1 fan – and welcome back, Sid....
Well no hat throwing anyway.. Wow that was nice, watching the Ferrari on hard tires show the Mercs a "wide car" until Hammy gave up and pitted.... I explained to several today, that a Ferrari win, in Italy in Monza, means the Heavens have parted and Enzo, along with probably Phil and Niki, are smiling down from above.
Ferrari might not have the best car for every track, today at Monza is was the best car. Mercedes through everything they had at it, and the Ferrari just couldn't be touched. Even with only a half a second between the chasing Mercedes and the lead Ferrari, even with DRS wide open, the Mercedes and both of the Mercedes drivers could not take the lead from Ferrari and Charles. This was very different than at Spa where Ferrari and Charles were lucky the race didn't go one more lap, and where it took some team work to protect Charles' lead. Today it was simply that Ferrari, car, team and driver, were the class of the field. Mercedes had no excuses...they were beaten fair and square from lap one to the finish. And Ferrari has been shown that they have what it takes. They have tasted victory at two races in a row and they know that they can fight for more wins this season, perhaps taking 3rd in the WDC from Max.
If only John, if only..... I’m afraid the limitations of the design mean this is likely, unless Mercedes have problems, the last race we had much chance at for the season now. Charles showed he has the mental strength as well as the racecraft to take the fight to Elton, that he can fight and beat him fair and square.
Now that you mention it, Phil's 1960 win was his first, and F1's last race won by a front engine car, and the venue of his 1961 championship- clinching victory......Phil Hill, Monza, in a Ferrari. The best.
So, at this stage... what did we learn? The Ferrari confirmed its power unit is at least a match for the Mercedes.... while the downforce package limits the car in corners, rendering the car slower over a lap still than the Mercedes by a significant margin, the straight line speed and the way the car gets its power down shows we are getting there. For next season, this bodes well assuming we can address the shortcomings in the chassis design without compromising that power performance. We will likely need a miracle to win again this season, but fingers crossed. LeClerc is firmly embedded in the ferrari now, and proving capable of commanding the stress involved in LEADING the team.... a revelation this year, his performances get better and better. In taking the fight to Maxine of late and learning in every engagement he makes, he demonstrated no one in f1 scares him, and he won’t be bullied even by the biggest bully in f1, and this weekend, showed the way to Elton, demonstrating he won’t be towing the line of allowing Elton to intimidate his way past, nor put up with late lunges and the resultant whining for penalties from him. Vettel could learn from his actions, he has all too often tackled Elton with kid gloves, only to come off worse, or even coming off looking stupid with a spin. LeClerc knows if you go in soft, you will spin 90% of the time, so he makes sure he stays tough and uses the car to its advantage, allowing Elton and anyone else the option to chose whether to take a risk and maybe spin themselves, or to back off and wait for a better opportunity. Sebastian needs a break, and to win something, anything, in a car, between now and his return. The guys confidence is shot, and ferrari are working too hard trying to improve and learn how to develop the car than to help him further. I fear (as a Seb fan no less) that he may be forced to concede his ferrari dream is over, he will not be emulating Michael, and that if he stays, it may be as a foil to LeClerc in his championship bids in the future. Better he retire with dignity of his own design, than to be unceremoniously sacked. Ferrari need to bring in a clear cut number two, ala bottas at Mercedes, to guarantee maximum points for LeClerc in a bid for a title that we, and F1 for its reputation, desperately need. Mercedes continued dominance is bad for the sport, as while other teams have dominated in years gone by, there has been competition with other teams.... there is NO competition for titles the last SiX years, Mercedes have a stranglehold, it wouldn’t matter who is in the cars. The FIA and Liberty are seeing reducing figures for viewership in real terms, poor media coverage due to the boredom of the average results, they really need to try to understand that we want racing, we want the sort of race that Monza and Spa produced, and to do so, you cannot have rules effectively written and enforced to protect the performance of one team over the other nine, they have to allow the opportunity for development and testing so that someone, anyone, might bring the fight REGULARLY to Mercedes, not just because one or two circuits in 20 give a team a shot as long as they make the tyres work and get track position. Hard as LeClerc worked the weekend, and as good as his performance, had either Mercedes slipped past he would not have been able to fight back, tyres would have been limited performance and the gain on the straights would have been tiny in comparison to mercs performance in the corners
If only the Ferrari and Mercedes were equally matched as with McLaren/Ferrari and Mika/Michael. Great battles. Charles has given us a slight flavour of what could be, but sadly unsustainable with the season-long car defecit.
It’s such a shame they went so wrong at the start of the year. Mind you, it wasn’t helped either by the abrupt change to the tyres - thanks again Pirelli, good to know you always have mercedes back when they need it Forza Ferrari..... the only racing team and car marque that matters. Italia forever It’s easier to apologise than it is to ask permission
Let’s concentrate on the positives- LeClerc is a beast as is the Ferrrari’s engine so we have that going forward. Need to get the aerodynamics straight next year and hopefully Pirelli will bring versatile tires that are durable and operate in a large temperature range.
If at least Ferrari can sort the pitwall part this year, things will greatly improve next year since they won't be doing the same mistake with the aero...