2020 Italian GP - Monza

[Nitrodaze]

Last season, Charles Leclerc won this Monza race to a very jubillant Itallian crowd. One could say that was the race win that effectively shifted the love of the Ferrari team and all of Italy from Vettel to Leclerc. The Ferrari cars dominated that race emphatically, making the silver Mercedes look somewhat ordinary on that occasion. That went on, in a season that Mercedes comfortably won, even though they found themselves fighting from their back foot on most occasions. Most of us were certain at that point, that Ferrari would turn up this 2020 season and dominate it to establish themselves as the defacto dominant force and put an end to Mercedes dominance in F1.

2019 closed with an FIA investigation into Ferrari's smokey engine which resulted in what appears to be the much criticized private deal between the FIA, F1 management and Ferrari. The aftermath of that, resulted in a poor showing of Ferrari at winter testing. Ferrari has started this season mostly fighting in the midfield with Alpha Tauri and Renault.

At the last race at Spa, Ferrari had both cars qualify and finish the race outside the top ten. A race that clearly underlined the crisis at Ferrari. We head into the Monza track of Italy, which is essentially a power track, with Ferrari bracing themselves for what could be a very embarassing weekend. A weekend which Ferrari would [at least] be happy to know the Tifosi fans would not be in attendance to see the ignomity of their situation.

It is going to be a race with Mercedes powered cars dominating the weekend. Redbull may be racing on their back foot. With Racing Point likely to be giving them a harder time than usual, l suspect. We get to see the true performance of the Renault engine at this race as well. Is the Renault engine faster than [or as fast as] the Honda for instance.

This is a race in which Bottas can recover some ground in the drivers championship. Tyres may once again be a subject of discussion as high engine torques and speeds may result in high tyre wear this weekend. We can expect real competitive racing to end at around lap 45 and tyre management to continue from then on. Thanks Pirelli.

The ban on engine party mode comes into effect at this race weekend. It would be interesting to see what effects that may have on closing up the sharp end of the grid. i wonder if the Honda powered cars are going to suffer more. Ferrari already have an underpowered engine, hence l suppose this ban does not affect Ferrari much, but it will help them get within the mix of the midfield more effectively.



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