Verstappen wins, between updated Red Bull and his guide that “makes everyone seem stupid”
Max Verstappen The Italian Grand Prix wins, not in a completely unexpected way, but certainly with a performance margin in the race higher than expected. The combination of factors that led to such a performance is to be found both on the car and pilot side. On the one hand, Red Bull this season has a clearly better performance in the low or medium-low loading slopes, where it expresses a better balance and a particular level of efficiency. The impression, also looking at the data in qualifying, is that, especially with the latest updates to the fund, the RB21 has a sort of “positive imbalance” at high speeds and low level of load, spectrum of conditions in which the decline increases without paying particular duty in resistance to advancement. To this obviously also adds the New Power Unit For this race, which Milton Keynes’ engineers were able to squeeze slightly more than usual by understanding the important opportunity that presented itself. On the other side there is Max Verstappen, cannibalalways ready to take the opportunity and to guide the best when he presents himself, and probably the only one able to manage the unloading set -up, taking responsibility for keeping the car in the ideal window for the whole race. The final detachment on the McLaren is too generous compared to reality, with the two woking drivers left on the track while waiting for a possible safety car to try to win the race, which has not happened and almost doubled the real gap. On Verstappen the words of Toto Wolff who said that “made all the other stupids seem like“They are decidedly explanatory, and in our opinion represent the first” embarrassment “, in this general case, of the Italian weekend that we want to underline.
McLaren does not win, but on the worst track it is second only to Max
In all this, the “news” may be that McLaren was not this weekend the best car on the track, but It is no wonder Too negative, indeed. Andrea Stella joking after the race said that Monza for MCL39 is a hard track Because there are few curves and we can only give him reason. We have clearly seen that there is a limit within which the men of the Papaya team can go to download the car without ending up in areas of bad overall efficiency or aerodynamic imbalance, and for this Norris e Plate They were the two pilots at the end with the most loaded on the single -seater in absolute value. What is surprising is actually positive for them and negative for competition: the amount of time earned on average by the McLaren drivers in the second and third sector of the track, from the first of Lesmo to the parabolic, was considerably higher to the loss in straight for lack of top speed. On the eve it was also assumed that the advantage McLaren would be on the race pace, taking advantage of lower wear of the tires, but the Mescole Pirelli proved to be decidedly excessive hardnesswith an almost null degradation and a race that could be traveled quietly almost for everyone even with the average rubber (without even the Hard uncomfortable). Monza is a track now from flat curbswhich therefore do not put the suspensive system in difficulty nor do they pose doubts about the heights from the ground, with just 6 curves and then only infinite straights, in an era in which the differences in powers of the engines are small and in a race where the rubber management has practically not made any difference, given that precisely degradation and wear were practically null, and only a car (not even a whole team) has managed to arrive in front of Norris and Flatters. If it is not embarrassing (for others) this, we don’t know what it can be. There is a theoretical embarrassment factor also in the McLaren housewith Norris’s long pit stop then caused The order of Scuderia who reversed the positions by returning the second place to English. Public and professionals, including the pilots themselves, are divided on the fact that the maneuver has actually been just or “too correct and boring” in some way, in a world that should be “ruthless racing”. On this, however, the writer does not agree, believing that in the end the error at the pit stop had been purely of the team and putting things right is, as Plastri said at the press conference, also a way of protecting the members of the team and the mechanics, as well as giving Norris back to Norris. Moreover, once a free race after overtaking, Lando confirmed what was seen in the first part of the race, that is, that he had more step by little step, about a tenth and a half, and beyond how much choices of the genre likes or not, the order of arrival has reflected the values on the track. Finally, on the pilots there is to underline the battle of Plastri with Leclerc at the start of the race: The Australian showed a great courage in attacking Ferrari number 16 outside the first of Lesmo. Although strong of the important disparity of aerodynamic load, the Piastri play the World Cup and in that situation the boundary between the great overtaking and a contact with the consequent 0 in the standings was particularly thin.
Ferrari: more than an all in it was a bluff
Maranello’s team comes out of the home Grand Prix. The declarations of Frederic Vasseur After the arrival when he spoke of “One of the best weekends in relation to McLaren“They are at least unhappy, if not exactly by embarrassment. Moreover, a few meters from Vasseur, Andrea Stella was simultaneously declaring that the Monza track is probably the worst for the MCL39, and, despite this, Leclerc only was able to look from the distance Norris and the pleasures that left, not to mention Verstappen. Bravo Monegasco to fight like a lion in the first laps, even if this sent the temperature of the rear tires to the stars and requested almost 10 laps of lift and coast To bring everything back to the window. This gives the idea a little on a part of how sensitive these single -seater and these tires are, which harness the guide on a single obligatory rhythm, on the other of how much Ferrari was downloaded, which even with a couple of battles slipped as if it were on the ice. The rhythm at the end of the Sint of the SF-25 was better, almost at the McLaren level, confirming a car in general always kind on the tires, but in a race almost null even null for the red was an unusable weapon. Only the pure performance counted: the aerodynamic penetration on the straight, the power of the engine in traction and lengthens, the stability in braking and the right load in the guided sections and nothing of this has been up to par, definitively putting a point on the SF-25 project, albeit reappeared with the new rear suspension. The impression is that the time spent waiting precisely the updated retrotrene has also weighed on the possible developments of the overall herododynamics of the car, probably including a significant passage of updating the fund that would bring more efficient load. Red Bull was able to put a passage of the genre as a last update step and the result has been seen. The embarrassments in the Ferrari house are also on relationship with Hamilton and on the management of the two pilots. What happened on Saturday in qualifying for the wake discourse, albeit certainly devoid of any effect on the final result, remains a questionable passage, but also in the race the strategy adopted on the seven times irritated, which had two possible strategic variables to try to fight with Russell, i.e. the Undercut or the overcut trying the soft rubber in the final, and both were not pursued. The reason appears to be the pursuit of the philosophy of the “same possibilities for both pilots”. The management of the two Alfieri della Rossa must also be courageous by the Team Principal, and all these fears only serve to deprive the team of possibilities to do better.
Mercedes still worse than Ferrari. Albon, Bortoleto and Hadjar big races
The only top team that distinguished itself for an even worse performance of the red was the Mercedeswith a Toto Wolff embarrassed in turn after the race, but with a performance that is not a real surprise: the Brackley team has never found a good reading key for this generation of cars, and the lack of fundamentals also emerged in Monza. The W16 continues to show generally insufficient performances, with a season stained also by an updated rear suspension that has brought more damage than benefits. Russell was then the only one of the first to have even almost a collapse on the medium tires, confirming that, with the highest temperatures, the AngloTedeschi do not find a way to manage the roofs. Overall instead the performance of Antonelli’s weekend is sufficienteven if the race was not clean between the bad start and the remedied penalty. The Italian, however, managed to conclude the points Grand Prix and is still what he needs to find a little more serenity. In front of him an extraordinary Alex Albon arrived, perfect on the strategy and “hammer” in the race pace, while immediately behind they concluded Bortoleto, author of another weekend of the highest level, and Hadjar, who in turn found a great comeback starting from the pits.
In short, some good performance among the embarrassments. The next race, in Baku, could reserve, at least hopefully, some surprises in more given the peculiarity of the track.
