Charles Leclerc won his seventh career grand prix at Ferrari’s home track. Leclerc’s first victory at Monza occurred five years ago. Starting fourth on the grid, no one expected Leclerc to come away with the victory, especially given how McLaren has been running the last three races. In fact, he should not have won, despite the massive upgrades Ferrari brought to their home track. McLaren is the dominate car on the Grid now, yet their tire degradation forced them to execute a two-stop strategy at Monza, whereas Ferrari was able to execute a one stop strategy.
Charles Leclerc was skeptical at lap 16 when he was asked to pit his car for a fresh set of hard tires. He came out in seventh position and Lando Norris had already undercut him. To make matters worse, Oscar Piastri pitted and came out in fourth position putting both McLarens in front of Leclerc’s Ferrari. At lap 18, it looked like Ferrari was going to endure another disappointing weekend.
Lando Norris suffered a tough day at the track today. Though he started in pole position, by the time he and his teammate hit the second chicane, Piastri bullied him into a corner and wheeled passed him onto the straight. Leclerc took advantage of Norris’s momentary reduced speed and overtook Norris seconds later. By the time lap one was over, Norris was running in third position.
Norris reported severe understeer on lap 14 and was forced to pit on lap 15. As Norris wheeled into the pits, he hit a bollard, slowing his entry. Around lap 31, it was clear that McLaren had not set their car up for long runs on a cooling track. Due to severe tire degradation, both McLarens were forced to pit again, gifting Charles Leclerc the lead. Leclerc carried that lead all the way to victory.
The Ferrari set up took advantage of McLaren’s tire degradation, allowing them to stay within 1.5 seconds of McLaren throughout the race. Ferrari believed that Leclerc would wheel them into a one stop once they realized the McLaren’s were struggling. In fact, Carlos Sainz called it at lap 16 stating “they will struggle to go to the end” as Oscar Piastri pitted his car for the first time. His prescience was realized as Lando Norris pitted again at lap 33 and Piastri pitted at lap 39. Both McLaren pit stops were plagued with minor hiccups, slowing their race down further.
There is no doubt that the McLarens are the quickest cars on the grid. Norris and Piastri had to make up significant track position after they each pitted late in the race. Piastri was 8 seconds behind Sainz and 18 seconds behind Leclerc. Norris was only one second behind Piastri, with Max Verstappen directly in front of him. Leclerc managed to win by a three second gap over Piastri, showing how truly fast the McLarens really are. Lando Norris secured the fastest lap of the race. Despite McLaren’s powerfully fast cars, Ferrari finally showed they could execute a brilliant strategy to take the victory. Ferrari’s engineers recognized McLaren’s woes and trusted their new upgrade package to keep Leclerc on track. On to Baku!
Race Notes:
- There are only eight races left in the season.
- In the last four races, there have been four different winners.
- Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc.
- Despite Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s troubles, Verstappen maintains a 62-point lead over Lando Norris.
- The Constructors championship is tight.
- Red Bull has 446 points.
- McLaren has 438 points.
- Ferrari has 407 points.
- Mercedes is 115 points behind Ferrari. It is a small wonder Lewis Hamilton is jumping ship to Ferrari next season.
