Race 15 - 2023 Italiian GP [Monza- Imola]

[Nitrodaze]

Alonso is now 33 points away from Perez as the fight for 2nd in the driver's championship ramps up. With Hamilton 12 points adrift from Alonso in 3rd and 45 points from Perez. It is still a three-man race for 2nd with so many races ahead, anything is possible.

On the constructors front, Aston Martin has closed to 40 points behind Mercedes and has put 14 points between themselves and Ferrari. By all accounts, Aston Martin seems to be the team on the move. Mercedes and McLaren stalled at the last race.

But the fast track of Imola promises to be a venue where things might get shaken up again. We can expect McLaren to find their mojo on this fast track. The true speed of the upgraded Mercedes would be evident, to give us a clear indication of the state of the pecking order behind the Redbulls. We shall also find out whether Aston Martin has recovered performance enough to mix it with McLaren and Mercedes.

This track has Redbull and Verstappen written all over it. While it is hard to see anyone beat Redbull on this track, one hopes that Redbull would let Perez challenge Verstappen for the race win at least.

The performance delta between Verstappen and Perez does not seem to me to be down to driver performance. The ease at which Verstappen is able to catch and pass Perez suggests to me he [Perez] is not getting full beans in his engine. Perez may be rattled but not that much. The quality delta between the engineers on each side of the garage is beginning to show again. The balance and apparent setup of the car since his last win has been noticeably poorer than on the Verstappen side of the Redbul pit. Ok, one could argue that he has been relegated to the number two driver, which would suggest what happened to Webber is happening again.

This weekend is a full race weekend for Liam Lawson who was brilliant at Zandvoort; considering he had jumped into the car at short notice. Which would make Ricciardo very nervous if he performed even better at this race. If Lawson somehow manages to finish this race ahead of Yuki, l think question marks on Ricciardo would start to emerge, l think.

I think the Williams would go very well at this race. Ferrari would need to pull out their best performance of the season for the expectant Tifosiis. Hence, a Ferrari podium is likely.

[Tazio]

Freakin' 'troll! So slow. What's up with that?

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[Zico]

Viva Ferrari! Congrats Carlos! 👏

[Tazio]

Someone please take down Rrd Bull!

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[airshifter]

Well, at least the Tifosi will be happy with the qually results. I doubt it will last more than a few laps into the race myself, but that's another story. I'd say at best a 50/50 chance of even a single Ferrari on the podium. Once again some fairly good mixing up of the constructors this week, and Williams back in the mix again with that slippery car piloted by Alex. These sessions are getting tighter and tighter for the time spread, so no wonder they are all out on track at the same time.

Timing of the Ferrari investigation couldn't have been any more suspect. Personally I think this needs to change to FIA control of minimum lap times, it's getting stupid out there trying to jockey for position, and cars are often just crawling on warm up laps, especially with the softs. Give them a minimum time delta and enforce it similar to VSC conditions, by sectors, so we get rid of the insane speed deltas being seen now.

[airshifter]

In the end, the Tifosi got at least one car on the podium, which is way better than no Ferrari drivers on the podium!

Overall, somewhat the usual Monza borefest IMHO. The RB drives both waited until the Ferrari's started losing their tires to really attack hard and played the long game. Not to say that Sainz and Leclerc didn't both drive great races, and the defending by Sainz in particular was excellent. He pushed right up to the limits of when and how he could move but never really went over the line in my opinion. I appreciate that Vasseur let them race, and for a bit there at the end I thought they might tangle and make my race prediction come to light. But they added some spice, didn't cause any real damage to the races of the other, and brought the cars home with good points.

Albon in that slippery Williams did well again also, and showed some very strong defending skills once again. The DRS train slowed some down and maybe pulled some forward, but he seemed to do well under the pressure overall. He is maturing into a much better driver as time goes on, though he always was fairly clean. That car is proof that the new formula gives the lesser teams a sporting chance at making real progress during the season, and I think the AM jumps in the early season show how much can happen with major changes between seasons.

Both McLaren and Merc overall had good weekend performance, and other than Piastri ending up with damage all the cars finished about as well as could be expected. It looks like Oscar might be a bit more aggressive than Lando at times, and it could make for some good viewing at the battle heats up. Both George and Lewis end up with penalties, but recover and really don't lose much from it. The margin to Ferrari and RB was just too much to give them any real hope of scoring better. When Lewis managed to stay in the DRS train on the hards at race start, it made me think for a while the alternate strategy might pay off more at the end, but by the time he got on the mediums it was still tough to make up positions.

Fred worked hard to be in the points, and that car looked a handful when trimmed out for low downforce. Bottas quietly rounded out the top 10, but I thought it was telling that Lawson managed to slip into 11th. The young guns are still trying to prove themselves, and Lawson overall did well. I'm not sure if Logan will make it long, as Alex is proving that the car is reasonably capable.



Toto being Toto, the RB streak of 15 and the Max streak of 10 mean nothing to anyone that doesn't read Wikipedia! I suspect he and Marko attend special instruction classes on how to attempt to minimize the results of other teams and gain press coverage. I guess they enjoy the mind games, but I don't think they are working all that well for any of them these days.

[Bagwan]

Yeah , it was a little on the boring side , but maybe seemed more so as compared to our now normal imminent rain races .

I was pretty surprised at the reds for not calming down Charles in those last laps .
At that point , it was Carlos's race , having outrun him in qually and having arrived into those last few in the lead .

There was a time when arriving calmly in control of a podium position in formation for the camera was paramount .
It showed the drivers were coordinated , respectful , and working as a team , and most importantly , employees of the team .

Much of the dicing was done after the instruction of "no risk" .
That was clearly not enough .

But Charles "had fun" , so that's certainly enough to justify risking both Ferrari cars being out in your home GP , isn't it ?




And , by the way , people who wear bright red team kit and half-million dollar watches around in public are asking to be robbed .
Perhaps it would be better to sell the watch and fund a few schools somewhere .

[Nitrodaze]

I think Ferrari did put on a great show. They demonstrated what real racing ought to look like. I mean what the fight for the championship title ought to look like, but on this occasion, it was just a fight for the remaining podium position. Leclerc piled the pressure on Sainz, I hope he enjoys it as much when the role is reversed in the future. However, it shows why Verstapenn's wins are all boring. And why most people complained when Hamilton won races 30 seconds ahead at the end of the race.

I thoroughly enjoyed the discomfort of watching the two Ferrari cars taking some risks to fight each other for the adoration of the Tifosi. In the end, both drivers acquitted themselves handsomely. I have to say Fred Vasseur won my respect by letting his drivers race each other and resisting the urge to impose team orders. It was a very refreshing new perspective on Ferrari. I can finally become a Ferrari fan at last.

It surprised me how the McLaren form did not materialize at this race. They finished behind the Williams of Albon. This indicates that Williams is on the ascendance in the capable hands of James Vowles. But also how truly great Albon is. Williams has found a driver that can help pull them back into contention. I am not sure what is going on at Mercedes, they have been lacklustre in the last two races.

[The Black Knight]

So Max got his ten in a row - unfortunately for Max it really means very little. RBR cheated to get into the position they are in so deserve little credit for it.

I disagree on the verdict of Albon being a truly great driver - he crumbled against Max. I accept he may have improved since then but we would only know that if he gets a benchmark teammate - Seargant is anything but this. The points Lewis made recently about Max never having a really strong teammate, and I'm sure I've made here before, are perfectly valid. We won't know how good he is until he has a proven entity in the car beside him. His two titles are tainted because both were attained by cheating of some sorts. Same with his third which has a knock on affect of RBR exceeding the cost cap. By comparison Lewis has had 3 world championship teammates and Bottas who is also a top driver.

Still the mystery surrounds Helmuts contract with Red Bull:

“Marko is present at all the races inside the Red Bull box, yet he is not among the three top managers whose compensation is not included in the $136 million.”

[Nitrodaze]

So Max got his ten in a row - unfortunately for Max it really means very little. RBR cheated to get into the position they are in so deserve little credit for it.

I disagree on the verdict of Albon being a truly great driver - he crumbled against Max. I accept he may have improved since then but we would only know that if he gets a benchmark teammate - Seargant is anything but this. The points Lewis made recently about Max never having a really strong teammate, and I'm sure I've made here before, are perfectly valid. We won't know how good he is until he has a proven entity in the car beside him. His two titles are tainted because both were attained by cheating of some sorts. Same with his third which has a knock on affect of RBR exceeding the cost cap. By comparison Lewis has had 3 world championship teammates and Bottas who is also a top driver.

Still the mystery surrounds Helmuts contract with Red Bull:

Probably great was an excessive word to use to describe Albon. But he has been great of late. I agree with everything else you say. The making of the most hollow drivers champion that is Verstapenn.