2025 Round 16 - Italian Grand Prix - Feedback Autodromo Nazionale Monza

[airshifter]

We return to the Temple of Speed, and the hopes of the Ferrari fans will be high.

It worked for Ferrari last year, with Leclerc taking the win after a 4th place starting grid. With Lewis starting with a grid penalty, it will be all on Charles and Ferrari to try to get it right this year, and both qually and strategy will be critical.

And though I really enjoy the energy of the tifosi at Monza.... it's not the best track. It's more a measure of what the cars can do to take off all the downforce possible and still make it through the few real corners and the chicanes. Almost the opposite of Zandvoort really, and though it can still be a fun race the on track action isn't that far up on my list of tracks I enjoy the most.

At this point much of the attention will be on Lando trying to catch Oscar, and the mid field cars fighting through for whatever points they can manage.

[Used to be Starter]

Well Red Bull has definitely found something they have been missing all season. Is there enough time left for it to become a three way battle?

[N. Jones]

I doubt it. With seven races to go I don't think they can bridge that gap.

[F1nKS]

Well Red Bull has definitely found something they have been missing all season. Is there enough time left for it to become a three way battle?

If Verstappen can win the next 7 races, Norris finish 2nd and Piastri 3

1. Piastri 429
2. Verstappen 426
3. Norris 419

That does not account for sprint races.

So Verstappen is not totally eliminated, but very high mountain to climb. No reason to believe that Red Bull has solved their problems.

Probably need Mclaren to have reliability issues or Norris and Piastri coming together and crashing out.

[N. Jones]

Three race wins tells me he doesn't realistically have a chance. It is going to come down to the PR Twins Sanitized Happy Fun Time Championship Race.

[F1nKS]

Three race wins tells me he doesn't realistically have a chance. It is going to come down to the PR Twins Sanitized Happy Fun Time Championship Race.

I wonder if the championship comes down to the last race, and Piastri has a slow pit stop, if Norris would give the position back if it meant whether he would win or lose the championship? I'm thinking he would say your "coming in garbled..."

[airshifter]

Not quite the weekend I was expecting.

Max and the Red Bull are still fast in the high speed stuff, but I really didn't expect him to be able to get the race lead, or keep it. But he showed us otherwise, and why his reputation is what it is. He never gives up and he is like a metronome with lap times when needed. I don't expect him to challenge at many more tracks this season. McLaren are much better on most tracks, but Max might have a fighting chance at Baku or maybe Vegas. I can't see him challenging for anything other than 3rd in the WDC, unless big problems happen with McLaren.


BUT.... what happened at Monza might lead to problems with the team at McLaren. A slow stop is a slow stop, but forcing the switch back shows that they want to "keep things fair" as much as possible. The problem with that is that just as often a slow stop could happen with a car between them, or other circumstances that prevent a switch back. Too much being involved could bite them at some point,


Not a bad weekend for Ferrari all things considered. George managed to stay ahead of Lewis but considering the grid penalty Lewis did well to at least get there. Ferrari are still having problems forcing more lift and coast, and it's no doubt playing with the drivers. But overall they were still the 3rd best car for the race.