An Ensemble of Colorful Clowns
A recap of the 2024 Italian Grand Prix
Fast tracks always deliver plenty of drama. As the “Temple of Speed,” where the average speed of the fastest laps exceeds 150 mph (>241 kpm/h), it’s no surprise that Monza, the site of the Italian Grand Prix, delivered the goods this past weekend. But despite the race delivering plenty of drama at the end and one of the season’s more emotional victories, to call the race “dramatic” feels unjust. In many ways, the varying levels of chaos that every team showed at this Italian Grand Prix meant the race felt much more like a modern-day commedia dell’arte: an ensemble of colorful clowns fumbling their way through various scenarios. Except these clowns were doing it while going 150 mph.
Ferrari showed great speed—but won because they showed greater coglioni.
Charles Leclerc: 1st (Qualified 4th)
Carlos Sainz: 4th (Qualified 5th)
Ferrari brought upgrades (it feels nice to say that unironically for once) to Monza. With that said, they didn’t win because they were the fastest car on track. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t slow. You can’t win at the “Temple of Speed” if you’re not fast. But Ferrari won because—to put it bluntly—they had the coglioni to go for the victory. At the end of the day, the team that wanted it more came out on top.
I’ve said before that the best car doesn’t always win in Formula One. Strategy matters, and Ferrari—despite gaining infamy the last few years proving that adage true by botching strategic calls—proved that saying right by actually getting the strategy right. While the rest of the top contenders zigged and went for a two-stop strategy, Ferrari zagged and went for a one-stop. The team deserve a round of applause for making that call, but there’s no question the move had the success it did because of Leclerc’s performance. While Sainz’s one-stop was clearly planned from the beginning (he switched from medium tires to hards on Lap 19/53), it initially looked like Ferrari were going to run Leclerc on a two-stop strategy given they brought him in on Lap 15. This was a strategic blunder: by responding to McLaren pitting Lando Norris on Lap 14, Ferrari allowed Leclerc to be undercut and come out of the pits in third after he had worked his way up to second during his first stint. Leclerc being stuck behind two faster cars while running the exact same strategy would have doomed him to third barring a miracle, so with nothing to lose Ferrari pulled out the Hail Mary. That it worked when Sainz’s more conventional one-stop failed to stop the McLarens is proof of how well Leclerc managed his tires during the race. In the aftermath, there was plenty of debate over whether Ferrari won the race or McLaren lost it. The manner in which Leclerc wound up taking victory makes it hard to argue Ferrari didn’t win it—even if McLaren genuinely tried their hardest to lose it.
Where do Ferrari go from here? The main battle for the Constructors’ Championship may be between McLaren and Red Bull, but victory at Monza puts Ferrari just 39 points behind Red Bull and poised to make a late charge for the team title. Whether they will succeed, however, is another story. This is a team whose results have largely confounded expectations no matter how you look at them. That becomes even clearer now that they can say they won on both the fastest track (Monza) and the slowest track (Monaco) this season, despite having inconsistent results on every track in between those extremes. That the next two races (Azerbaijan and Singapore) are on tracks that straddle both extremes means Ferrari are likely quietly confident about their chances at both. But the quirks of both circuits also mean they won’t be an accurate gauge as to how competitive Ferrari really are, and putting up points at both won’t matter if they find themselves falling behind the other frontrunners once the championship returns to more “traditional” circuits in October. Add on the improvements their rivals will make, and it’s likely Ferrari are still a step behind the championship leaders right now. Considering where they were heading into the summer break, they’ll still gladly take that.
And even if Ferrari do fall short, they’ll always have this memorable victory to look back on. After all, there’s nothing quite like winning at home—especially when it happens against all odds.
McLaren say they’re serious about fighting for both championships. Their circus act says otherwise.
Oscar Piastri: 2nd (Qualified 2nd)
Lando Norris: 3rd (Qualified 1st)
If McLaren are gunning for Ferrari’s throne when it comes to strategic fiascos, they’re succeeding. Their season is quickly becoming as much about their botched strategy as it is about their rise to the top, and this past weekend was surely their pièce de résistance.
I said after McLaren’s domination at the Dutch Grand Prix their upgrades would keep them competitive at Monza despite the track not being suited to their car, but even I was surprised when they locked out the front row in qualifying on Saturday. McLaren’s success, combined with Red Bull’s catastrophic performance, made it seem like the former could officially call themselves Constructors’ Championship leaders by the weekend’s end.
Then came the race on Sunday.
It actually started off quite well: Norris had a decent race start (finally!) and held on to the lead after the first corner, and Piastri’s solid start meant he also consolidated second place. All the McLarens needed to do at this point was use the clean air at the front to dictate the pace and close it out, something that wasn’t out of the question given they had shown themselves to be the fastest ones on track the entire weekend.
Then came the fourth corner.
In what will likely be a contender for overtake of the season, Piastri broke late and dove down the outside of Norris to squeeze past. It was a brilliant move by Piastri, an overtake with both perfect vision and execution. It also destroyed McLaren’s entire race. Norris, caught out and forced to take evasive action to avoid crashing into his teammate, lost too much momentum and ended up ceding not only first place to Piastri but second place to Leclerc as well.
Going from 1-2 to 1-3 ultimately doomed McLaren. Instead of being able to control the pace from the front, both were now forced to up the pace: Piastri to build a lead between him and Leclerc, Norris to try and overtake Leclerc. After seeing an on-track overtake would’ve been too difficult given Leclerc was running a similar pace to both Mclarens, the team made the right adjustment by bringing Norris in on Lap 14 for the undercut. It initially worked—Ferrari fell into the trap and pitted Leclerc a lap later. McLaren then pitted Piastri on Lap 16 and found themselves back in the top two positions.
Then came the order to race.
After initially telling Norris he may be asked to play defense against Leclerc, the team backtracked and told both drivers they were allowed to race each other under “Papaya Rules,” defined by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown as racing each other “hard and fair, and don’t touch each other.” This order from the team caused a domino effect in which Norris and Piastri proceeded to alternate setting fastest laps of the race, wearing their tires out and necessitating a second stop. That allowed Leclerc to pull ahead of both, turning the 1-2 into what eventually finished as a 2-3.
Don’t let the double podium fool you: McLaren’s Italian Grand Prix was a complete circus act. The team said afterwards they weren’t seriously considering a one-stop strategy. That makes sense—the one-stop was the riskier plan because there were legitimate worries about the tires lasting long enough. But the decision to let Norris and Piastri race each other after their first stops effectively tied them to a two-stopper and eliminated any chance they could counter Ferrari’s decision to one-stop Leclerc with anything other than sheer pace. Relying on the car’s speed would have worked had Monza been a good fit for McLaren—and everyone knew it wasn’t. Yes, they qualified 1st and 2nd. But it was clear all weekend they would never have anywhere near the pace advantage they had at Zandvoort, which made their decision to go with the two-stopper seemingly on the basis they could hold on via such a minute advantage all the more shocking.
Having said all that, the clearest place where McLaren lost the race was the start. The Piastri overtake, as great as it was to watch, should never have happened in the first place. Once it became clear Red Bull were going to struggle the entire weekend, McLaren’s entire race strategy should have revolved around defending their 1-2 from qualifying. It may have meant a more boring race, but McLaren aren’t racing to win the overtake of the season award. That the team allowed the move by Piastri to happen is a clear indication they didn’t head into Sunday with both the team and drivers’ championships in mind, and it cost them in the end. Instead of leaving Italy as leaders in the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren allowed Red Bull to escape with a nine point lead.
The blame here lies solely with the team. It’s not Piastri’s responsibility to proactively look out for anyone other than himself on-track, so the only way to come as close as possible to guaranteeing the overtake wouldn’t occur was via the team handing down orders. Some will argue McLaren were right not to say anything considering Piastri was faster than Norris on race day. But Norris’s race pace was only 0.07 seconds/lap slower—a clear difference in a sport measured by milliseconds, but not significant enough that Norris being in the lead would have jeopardized McLaren’s 1-2 by letting Leclerc catch up and overtake both McLarens. If anything, imposing team orders and keeping Norris ahead would have certainly been less damaging than letting Piastri nearly take both cars out while simultaneously opening the door for Leclerc to slip through.
McLaren’s decision not to say or do anything was also disappointing given it cost Norris valuable points in the Drivers’ Championship. Norris leaves Italy trailing Verstappen by 62 points instead of 52 had he won the race or 59 had he finished second behind Piastri. Make no mistake: Norris still has a chance at the title. He needs to outscore Verstappen by an average of eight points/race in order to become world champion. In Monza, he did just that. But the extra points would have been great insurance for Norris given Red Bull will almost certainly identify and fix the issues with their car. Verstappen won’t give away many free opportunities, and this one was about as free as they come.
That the team failed to recognize this and throw their support fully behind Norris this past weekend also added onto the disappointment. Norris joined the team at a time when they were struggling, and he stuck by them when he extended his contract despite being able to go elsewhere that seemed more win-ready. But Italy made it clear the team—despite having promised to do so—have yet to pay him back in kind. Some will argue that Norris hasn’t earned his position as the number one driver and that seniority means nothing. They’re right on the second part, but wrong on the first. Norris has clearly been the faster driver across the season, and expecting the number one driver on a team to be faster than the other driver 100% of the time means you don’t understand statistics. Or you’re a Williams superfan, in which case I will remind you your view has been skewed by the former Alex Albon-Logan Sargeant dynamic and encourage you to return to Earth from whichever alternate reality you’ve unfortunately floated off to. Even Verstappen isn’t always faster than Sergio Perez, but that doesn’t mean Red Bull won’t hesitate to prioritize Verstappen on a day when Perez is faster if they deem it necessary to help Verstappen’s chances at the drivers’ title.
Team Principal Andrea Stella confirmed the obvious this week when he said Norris is “obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view…if we have to give support to one driver, we have to pick the driver that is in the best position.” That there is finally acknowledgement of this is welcome, even if it comes much later than it should have. Hopefully they’ll actually act on their words and stop clowning around.
A fresh face can’t hide a stale weekend for Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton: 5th (Qualified 6th)
George Russell: 7th (Qualified 3rd)
The big news for Mercedes heading into the race weekend was the team’s announcement that Kimi Antonelli would be taking over the seat being vacated by Hamilton in 2025. The decision to roll the dice with young talent as opposed to someone more established may seem shocking, but while it certainly is a brave decision it shouldn’t be considered all that surprising. After all, Mercedes made a similar decision when they brought on Russell in 2022. The difference this time around is that Antonelli will be a rookie, whereas Russell had already had a few years’ experience at Williams. That showed during the first free practice on Friday, when Antonelli crashed at Turn 11 (the famous Curva Parabolica). While a far from ideal introduction, it would be too harsh to judge Antonelli off of this one moment. That Mercedes chose to sign him when there were clearly more experienced drivers on the market (Sainz) suggests that they’ve factored in the learning curve and believe in Antonelli’s ability to learn quickly and make good on his potential.
Mercedes will also be glad for the buzz generated by the Antonelli announcement, because their race weekend generated absolutely nothing positive worth talking about. Hamilton rued another disappointing qualifying, but his P5 result on Sunday was largely thanks to his teammate. Russell locked up at the first corner on Lap 1 and damaged his front wing endplate (the bit on the side of the front wing) while going down the escape road. The damage impacted his first stint and necessitated a longer pit stop to replace the front wing. Yet it was clear on Sunday Mercedes would have still been behind McLaren and Ferrari even without the individual errors, something they will look to rectify given they were the ones at the front of the pack along with McLaren before the summer break. Still, as the next team in this recap will tell you, it could’ve been worse.
Red Bull need a Red Bull. Desperately.
Max Verstappen: 6th (Qualified 7th)
Sergio Perez: 8th (Qualified 8th)
Monza was supposed to be the type of track that Red Bull would thrive on. Instead, they were never in contention the entire week. An engine issue meant they couldn’t run the car at full power, leaving them stuck behind McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes in both qualifying and the race.
It’s been clear for a while now that Red Bull are struggling, but a P6-P8 finish this weekend where they did all they could and were still outclassed by their rivals is a new low for them. Sure, Perez finishing 8th is just…Perez. But Verstappen being helplessly stuck behind a train of rivals is something we haven’t seen in a long time. His frustration on Sunday was evident, as the camera caught him slamming his hands on his wheel in frustration after an especially slow 6.2 second pit stop—yet another example of Red Bull’s once renowned efficiency going down the drain this season.
Red Bull’s massive underperformance at Monza hurts beyond just dropping points this past weekend. This was their best chance to extend their lead in both championships among all the September races. Monza’s emphasis on raw speed should’ve played to their car’s greatest strengths, while the next two races in Azerbaijan and Singapore are tight city circuits that exacerbate the 'handling imbalances' identified as the car’s main issue. If they fix their engine issues from Monza, they might have a fighting chance in Azerbaijan given that track’s greater emphasis on straight line speed. But Singapore—the only race Red Bull couldn’t win last season when they were leagues above everyone else—was penciled in from the very beginning as a race where minimizing losses was key. That they performed so poorly at Monza only makes their job in Singapore feel even more daunting now.
Red Bull may have finally identified the problem with their car. Whether or not they identify the cause and the solution still remains to be seen. Time is running out for Red Bull to salvage their season, and they’re going to need every possible second available to them if they want to save their season before it’s too late. Hopefully the team fridges are stocked with Red Bull.
The honeymoon phase between Colapinto and Williams can’t hide the entire mess the team are creating for themselves.
Alex Albon: 9th (Qualified 9th)
Franco Colapinto: 12th (Qualified 18th)
Let’s start by getting the obvious facts out of the way: this was a genuinely good weekend for Williams, and Colapinto impressed in his race debut. After the heartbreak at Zandvoort, this was the validation the team needed to ensure they were on the right path with their car.
For all the positives, though, I’m not sure I buy the decision to swap out Logan Sargeant for Colapinto just yet. Yes, Colapinto drove an extremely clean race that saw him climb up the ranks after a mistake in qualifying had him starting from the back. Yes, his overall race pace was decently close to Albon’s (a little more than 0.2 seconds slower/lap) given his lack of Formula One experience as well as the circumstance under which he was called up for the team. Yes, he was decently close to scoring points in his debut race and justifying Team Principal James Vowles’s reasoning for bringing him on. But while Colapinto was just under 14 seconds slower than Albon across the whole race, it’s worth noting Fernando Alonso in 11th crossed the finish line barely over a second after Albon. There’s also the matter of everyone else’s race. If you keep reading, you’ll discover almost everyone who finished below Albon had a race that ranged from kitchen mess to Chernobyl-esque. If anything, it would have been more concerning if Colapinto hadn’t worked his way up the grid. When you combine that and the fact Albon himself was also very close to getting squeezed out of the points, it’s still difficult to justify how exactly Colapinto makes Williams significantly more capable of “scoring points.”
And then there’s the question of sticking the landing of this entire move. All the praise Vowles has showered on Colapinto is great, but the fact is anything positive won’t matter much because Colapinto will be gone next season anyway. This stint is a lovely audition for him to show his potential, but barring a miracle of Biblical proportions Colapinto and Williams still find themselves in a Catch-22. Colapinto needs to perform well to show that he deserves a real chance in Formula One sometime soon, but performing well will also probably guarantee he won’t get that chance anytime soon. Williams will want to roll with the Albon-Sainz partnership (the appendix-less bros!) for as long as they can, but they will be equally hesitant letting Colapinto drive elsewhere if they feel like he has what it takes.
Honeymoon phases don’t last, especially when the couple in question are well aware of that fact. Things may be all good for now, but we’ll see how they are once it comes time for the inevitable breakup.
Haas crash and stumble their way to a…victory?
Kevin Magnussen: 10th (Qualified 13th)
Nico Hulkenberg: 17th (Qualified 10th)
When I say Haas’s weekend was a complete car crash, I mean it literally. Hulkenberg had to pit on Lap 5 for a front wing change after he collided with Yuki Tsunoda’s RB. If the early and long pit stop didn’t already ruin his race, Hulkenberg’s collision also came with a 10-second penalty that left him floundering in the back the rest of Sunday. As for Magnussen, his collision with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine on Lap 19 also saw him slapped with a 10-second penalty. Luckily for Magnussen, his car came out of the collision unscathed, and he managed a brilliant one-stop drive that saw him steal the final points spot from Fernando Alonso by 0.193 of a second. That being said, the collision added two penalty points to his FIA Super License (think of this like you would your normal drivers’ license), meaning he reached 12 penalty points within a 12-month period. This triggered an automatic one-race ban, meaning Magnussen won’t be competing in Azerbaijan.
But before you go thinking this was a pyrrhic victory for Magnussen and Haas, think again: Magnussen’s replacement in Baku will be none other than Ollie Bearman, who will be driving for the team next year. Furthermore, RB failing to score any points (something which Haas played a role in) meant Magnussen’s 10th place finish allowed them to close down the gap to their nearest rival in the Constructors’ Championship to six points. Pyrrhic? Somehow, I think not.
If Adrian Newey is heading to Aston Martin, he’ll have a lot of work to do.
Fernando Alonso: 11th (Qualified 11th)
Lance Stroll: 19th (Qualified 17th)
The big (albeit still unofficial) news in Formula One right now is that Adrian Newey, outgoing Chief Technical Officer at Red Bull, will likely be heading to Aston Martin. This is a massive coup by the team—Newey is widely regarded as the greatest engineer the sport has ever seen, evidenced by the fact his designs have won a whopping 25 Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships.
Newey had previously explained his decision to leave Red Bull was driven by a desire to explore a new challenge. That he opted for Aston Martin despite reported interest from Ferrari and McLaren certainly speaks to that, because he will have his hands full. The team put on another clown show this past weekend, as Alonso still couldn’t get into the points despite Magnussen’s 10-second penalty.
But the real challenge for Newey won’t be designing a competitive car. After all, he’s done that plenty of times throughout his career. The added dimension of this Aston Martin challenge will likely be designing a car that can withstand the sabotage it will be put through week after week by one half of the team’s driver lineup. On Sunday, the team brought Stroll into the pits on Lap 50 and fitted him with soft tires in order to try and set the fastest lap of the race. Not only did Stroll not do that, his fastest time on the soft tires was eight-tenths slower than the fastest lap of the race set by Norris, who achieved the benchmark on the last lap (Lap 53) using hard tires which were already 20 laps old. Stroll’s performance at Monza was so embarrassing that Piastri–known for generally staying away from firing shots at other drivers– said Stroll was “driving like it was his first go-kart race.”
Building a Stroll-proof car, then, might just be the challenge Newey is craving.
Bad luck and stupid mistakes spoil RB’s weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo: 13th (Qualified 12th)
Yuki Tsunoda: DNF (Qualified 16th)
I mentioned earlier Haas played a role in RB’s points-less finish. Hulkenberg’s collision with Tsunoda forced the latter to retire the car on Lap 4. Not much you can say about that.
The agony didn’t stop there for RB though. Ricciardo was given a 5-second penalty for forcing–ironically–Hulkenberg of all drivers off the track on the first lap. That 5-second penalty would not have necessarily killed his race, as RB lacked the pace all weekend to be able to challenge for a spot in the points. However, the initial 5-second penalty soon tripled: a mechanic had accidentally touched Ricciardo’s car as it was coming into the pits. Under the rules, you’re only allowed to touch a car that’s serving a penalty in the pits after the penalty has been completed. The mechanic’s mistake meant the stewards slapped Ricciardo with a 10-second penalty, which dropped him into 13th place behind Colapinto.
Much like their sister Red Bull team, RB are finding themselves desperately fending off their nearest rivals heading into the tail end of the season. The team were aware they hadn’t been competitive in a while, and a push at the team factory allowed them to deliver one set of upgrades scheduled for Azerbaijan early. But like many other teams this weekend, RB’s weekend could be described as “tragicomic,” and the upgrades only highlighted that fact when they were installed on Tsunoda’s car.
A week after taking off, Oliver Oakes receives the classic crash-and-burn Alpine experience.
Esteban Ocon: 14th (Qualified 15th)
Pierre Gasly: 15th (Qualified 14th)
A week after the Oliver Oakes era saw lift-off, the new Team Principal finally experienced what it’s actually like to lead Alpine. Despite starting Ocon on hard tires and going for a one-stop strategy while starting Gasly on the medium tires and going for a two-stopper, all the team managed at the end of the day was have their drivers swap positions with each other.
Hopefully Oakes knows most weekends at Alpine will be like what he experienced in Monza rather than Zandvoort, because there is plenty of work to do. You know it’s bad when Gasly expressed surprise at how harsh the stewards were on Magnussen–who remember, had crashed into Gasly. “Honestly, this was nothing,” said the Frenchman regarding the collision. “The whole afternoon we were dead slow.”
Yes, Sauber still exist.
Valterri Bottas: 16th (Qualified 19th)
Zhou Guanyu: 18th (Qualified 20th)
No, they still haven’t scored any points this season.
Miscellaneous Musings:
There may be no Formula One racing this weekend, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any racing whatsoever. Stay tuned later this weekend for an exciting collaboration!
But before we get to the collab, look out for another post that will be dropping first. If you’re an avid reader of Omakase Formula, you should really already know what’s coming…