The Scuderia hopes to raise the bar in the “temple of speed”, where it shone this Friday in testing.
Two best times in first practice on Friday and a penalty for leader Max Verstappen (Red Bull): Ferrari started its weekend at home with a smile, hoping to return to success at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Charles Leclerc, 2nd in the championship 109 points behind the Dutch driver, then Carlos Sainz, 5th overall, dominated the first then the second hour of free practice at Monza. Enough to hope for victory on Sunday? “Our goal is victory in every race, and that includes Monza“In any case, recalled the boss of the Scuderia, Mattia Binotto, before the Grand Prix”maison».
Seven races from the end of the season, Ferrari and its manager are on the ropes after several mechanical problems and strategic errors which cost dearly against the Red Bull machine and its cold-blooded monster Verstappen. But on Sunday, Leclerc will get a boost: Verstappen will start with a five-place grid penalty. Two weeks after changing his entire power unit in Belgium, Verstappen is penalized again, this time for a change of internal combustion engine on Friday, beyond the quota allowed per season.
Read alsoFormula 1: Verstappen penalized on the starting grid at Monza
Verstappen aims for the five pass
But for “Mad Max“, so dominating this season with ten victories in fifteen races, this penalty seems very easily surmountable: in Belgium, on August 28, when he started from 14th place on the grid, the Batavian had recovered everyone before prevail. After France, Hungary and Belgium, he won his fourth GP in a row at home in the Netherlands last week.
It is this time on Ferrari land and in front of the tifosi that he is therefore aiming for a fifth. With, in sight, the record of thirteen victories in one season held by the Germans Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013). Leclerc, dropped in the title race, is looking for his first victory since Austria on July 10. The Monegasque could thus relive the osmosis after his success here in 2019, when he had truly entered the hearts of the tifosi.
His team-mate Sainz will find it more difficult to impose himself: he will start at the back of the grid for having changed several parts of his single-seater. Behind, he will be accompanied by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), penalized for similar reasons.
Read alsoFormula 1: Carlos Sainz the fastest in free practice 2
moment of silence
In the aftermath of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a minute’s silence was observed before the start of practice on Friday, and another should be observed before the race on Sunday. The teams, mostly based in the United Kingdom, all paid tribute to the monarch on Thursday by press release and several of them added a black headband to their single-seaters.
This Grand Prix is also an opportunity for Italian motorsport to celebrate three anniversaries: the 75th anniversary of Ferrari as a car manufacturer, the 100th of the Monza circuit and the 150th of tire supplier Pirelli. The Scuderia sports a special livery, streaked with yellow on the usual red, and its drivers are dressed in yellow. The yellow of the famous prancing horse coat of arms is the color, along with blue, of the city of Modena, where Enzo Ferrari started his great adventure – before moving to Maranello.
