2018 Italian GP Review – By Bob Constanduros
There’s a lot to talk about after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza: Ferrari’s failure, the ongoing silly season, Verstappen’s rant, Ericsson’s crash, booing, overtaking, fake pit stops, even GP3. It was a busy weekend with some superb racing, one of the better Italian Grands Prix, unseasonal weather and a great crowd and atmosphere.
Monza is always a high point of the season thanks to that great circuit, even in its chicane-ridden era. The average speed for the Grand Prix on Sunday was 239.288kph, which is 148.686mph over an hour and 16 minutes of racing. Now that is quick! No wonder the drivers love it, but it isn’t a long race as you can see.
The very nature of those chicanes make for some interesting overtaking and we saw quite a lot of that last weekend. Inevitably it is into the first and second chicanes where much of the overtaking takes place, and a driver will usually cover the inside line to prevent being outbraked. Sebastian Vettel, however, left the door wide open going into the second chicane, which invited Lewis to go around the outside. When the Ferrari driver wanted to take his line into the second part of the chicane, Lewis was there, Sebastian was off-line and the rest is history. In Sebastian’s case, he spun but others just had to relinquish their position.
There was a lot of what Malcolm McLaren (no relation, no spelling mistake) would call ‘round the outside, round the outside’ in Buffalo Girls. That was the way to overtake at Monza last weekend. That way, at that second turn-in, the overtaking driver would put the overtaken one off-line and he would have to back off. There weren’t too many contacts either, which made it better.
The only one that didn’t work was Valtteri Bottas on Max Verstappen, but then Max moved over on Valtteri too late and absolutely correctly, in my view, Max copped a penalty for that. I like Max’s style of racing and he’s shown to be very adept at the ‘kart-style’ of just being alongside another driver and taking the line. But he doesn’t like it being done to him! His rant afterwards was just plain stupid and reminds us that he is still very young.
One of the best races of the weekend was between Giuliano Alesi and Pedro Piquet in the second of the weekend’s GP3 races. Watched by their fathers, this was a wonderful race and utterly fair. Piquet overtook Alesi on a couple of occasions at the first chicane, but the Frenchman would get him back through the Curva Grande which was no mean feat. I thought that Alesi should have won thanks to this tactic but it was Piquet who took the chequered flag. The Dads’ body language throughout the race was hilarious. I’m not sure they can stand it again; maybe they should stay at home.
As I mentioned in my preview, Monza is often a time for Ferrari to announce their drivers for the next year – but not this weekend. Kimi Raikkonen was handed the opportunity to get pole position in qualifying and didn’t disappoint. It was the first of Ferrari’s mistakes, that Sebastian Vettel didn’t get the tow even though it wasn’t his turn. So Kimi did what he needed to do and took pole and then he became the man to beat when Sebastian spun. He did all he could, but was not equal to Lewis. Who is?
Did the supposed ‘false pit stop’ have anything to do with it? Even if it did, I think that’s a storm in a tea cup. We often see teams come out into the pit lane, set up for a pit stop only to have to pack everything away again because the strategy changes. If this was the situation at Monza, so be it, and I think race director Charlie Whiting was right to basically ignore it. If it’s done too much, that’s another thing and would appear to be a strategic move but not in this case.
Ferrari and Kimi came second then. It was a big defeat at home and more than just Mercedes versus Ferrari. Italy as a whole, post-holiday, were looking for good news, particularly after the death of Sergio Marchionne and the Genoa bridge disaster. They wanted a Ferrari win for the feelgood factor and they didn’t get it. The booing of Lewis Hamilton was poor but neatly turned into a plus factor by the championship leader. Good stuff.
But Ferrari’s future remains the question. Kimi did all he could for second but is it enough? I suggested in the preview that they need Kimi to score points for Ferrari and this he did on Sunday, but the rumour at Monza is that Marchionne had already signed Charles Leclerc for next year before he died so Kimi is out anyway. Or will it be a swap with Leclerc and he’ll go back to Sauber?
Another name bandied about in Monza was that of Daniil Kvyat. With Toro Rosso losing Gasly and likely to lose Hartley as well, the Italian team needs replacements and there aren’t too many in the Red Bull family. After working with Ferrari, it seems the Russian driver could be back in the frame again.
Stoffel Vandoorne might be hoping for similar salvation. No one is happy with the treatment he’s received but clearly insiders at McLaren feel that they would have a better chance with a complete newcomer, as in Lando Norris. No criticism of Lando who has always been seen as a very promising driver but surely Stoffel’s experience is worth something or has his confidence taken such a bashing that he needs major rejuvenation?
He may be on the F1 scrap heap but then so might Esteban Ocon, another driver who is surely worth his seat. The Stroll/Racing Point Force India situation may see the young French driver out of a drive and again, this would not be well received. The media is right on the case with awkward questions being asked. I normally don’t like getting involved in silly season rumours because of the certainty of getting it wrong but some of this stuff has to be commented on.
The one piece of good news was Marcus Ericsson’s survival. We all like Marcus, even if he’s not a top flight driver, but he’s a good bloke so to see him suffer and then survive an accident such as he had was worrying and relieving at the same time. Formula One can be proud of its safety but it just reminds one of how much energy there is in these cars at high speed when they have such a massive accident. And well done to Marcus’s physio Alex Elgh (son of ex-F2 driver Eje) for building a driver who could bounce back a day later from such an accident. That was the biggest one we’ve seen for some time.
And so it’s goodbye Europe and we’re back on the long haul flights again. Seven races left and it’s definitely advantage Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Ferrari have a lot to do and there are races coming up where Red Bull could put their oar in too. All to play for!
Ends
