F1. Italy 2024 Review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle, Aiden McLaughlin, Graeme Woolf and Peter McGlashan

Driver of the day

Graeme – It has to be Charles Leclerc. After all of Ferrari’s errors in strategy over the past year, to go with a one stop strategy and for it to pay off was a huge call. If there is ever a place to take the gamble, why not do it in front of their home fans, the adoring Tifosi, right? His pass of Norris on Lap 1 was crucial in achieving this too. If he’d have been in 3 rd behind the McLarens, I wonder if he would’ve been able to pull off the one stop strategy. We will never know that answer though. With a massive amount of pressure to deliver in Monza, Le Clerc and Ferrari did just that. A fantastic performance.

An honourable mention also to debutant Franco Colapinto. The young Argentine started 18th on the grid and quietly went about his business despite having never driven more than 8 laps in a row in a Formula 1 car, and never on hard tyres, to finish 12th.

Peter – Hard to think of anyone other than Leclerc. I was thinking of Magnussen because man he did some work but he just kept crashing into people then his post-race tantrum kinda turned me off him.

Gavin – Charles Leclerc. Firstly he managed to get past Lando Norris on the first lap, and then he completed a near perfect race. While everyone else was suffering from front left tyre graining, Charles made the one stop strategy work by somehow keeping those tyres alive. The worst case scenario for him would have been ending third – either by being passed by the two McLarens, or by pitting twice. The strategy itself may have been more of a “do the opposite of McLaren” type of strategy but they still needed to execute it, and with the help of teammate Carlos Sainz in holding the McLarens up, they only went and did it.

Chelsea – Who else but Charles Leclerc? His race start saw him glued to the rear of duelling McLarens, before slipping past Lando Norris as the latter dueled with his teammate. Later, he executed an inspired one-stop strategy and stumbled over the line on shredded tyres to take the win. It felt more like good luck than good (tyre) management, but that doesn’t take away from an excellent drive, and proved himself superior to departing teammate Sainz.

Aiden – If you’d given Charles Leclerc the choice of two grand prix victories this season, he would have bitten your hand off for Monaco and Monza. His first success during the race was climbing to second position early, to split the McLaren teammates. From there, when the decision was made to implement a one-stop strategy, he managed his tyres perfectly to keep Oscar Piastri at arm’s length. He’s now only 24 points behind Lando Norris in the drivers standings and although 86 behind Max Verstappen seems too steep a hill to climb, there is certainly now some hope for the tifosi, especially as they are only 39 points behind Red Bull and 31 behind McLaren in the constructors championship.

 

Moment of the weekend

Graeme – Lap 1, turn 4. All the talk beforehand was whether Lando Norris could actually nail the start and lead from pole after the first corner. He did that, but his teammate, Oscar Piastri, had other ideas and overtook him soon after. Then on Lap 18, the now trending phrase “Papaya Rules” was uttered on Norris’ comms, leaving the commentators and viewers alike trying to work out exactly what that message was. As the race went on, we all wondered and tried to work this out, but what I think it did was to bring McLarens morale crashing down after what was another successful weekend which brought them closer again to Red Bull in the Constructors standings. From what I saw in the cool down room briefly and in some imagery online, things looked very icy between the two McLaren drivers.

Peter – The hold the phone moment of the weekend was when Rosberg casually dropped into the conversation halfway through P3 that he had received an email asking if he’d like to invest in Alpine. Rosberg can be frustrating sometimes with the several chips he still carries on his shoulders but his lack of a filter for rumours, hearsay and the “only a former F1 world champion would know that” insights make it worth getting him back.

The most memorable moment of the weekend was actually the scenes as the Italian National Anthem was sung after the race. There’s no country in the world like Italy, and anyone that hasn’t been has to find a way in their lifetime to experience the culture, passion and history it exudes when you walk the streets and eat the food.

Gavin – With about ten laps to go when the realisation that Ferrari are trying a one-stop strategy dawns on the Tifosi and they start to cheer and will that prancing horse to the chequered flag. The noise as the Ferrari was going past each of the sections of fans was spine-tingling, you could hardly make out what Martin Brundle and David Croft were saying in the commentary box. Forget Drive To Survive, this is what F1 is all about.

Chelsea – Charles Leclerc, on the podium above a sea of roaring Tifosi. For those of us longing for a return to Ferrari’s glory days, it was a beautiful sight. For those indifferent, it was still pretty impressive.

Aiden – I thought it would be hard to go past Kimi Antonelli’s unfortunate crash during free practice on Friday (“Kimi, all good. All good Kimi”), but boy oh boy, the weekend still had plenty in store. As a bit of a traditionalist, I loved how Ferrari were able to pull off the victory at Monza and for me, the moment of the weekend was the Italian national anthem as Charles Leclerc stood on the top step of the podium. Passionate, powerful, spine tingling. An honourable mention for Martin Brundle who managed to get eight Oasis singles and one of their album titles mentioned in the first 47 seconds of his grid walk. Where Did It All Go Wrong Martin?

 

Hot take of the weekend

Graeme – That 1 point for fastest lap at the end of the race which Lando Norris managed, could be crucial come season’s end. However, for it to come into play, McLaren need to decide if they want to win the Driver’s Championship, or just the Constructors. If they continue to not pick a Number 1 one driver and Max Verstappen continues to finish in the mid-range points, Norris may not have enough points to edge the reigning World Champion this year. I get that winning the Constructors Championship is the main goal and is also extremely lucrative but this will surely happen now even if they make that call on which driver is their main man.

Peter – Lewis mentioning the photo of him shaking the hand of a young Grid boy back in 2007 and that grid boy “apparently” being the first person Toto thought of when Lewis told him he was off to Ferrari.

Gavin – Over the last couple of seasons the predominant theory has been that Max Verstappen could win a race driving literally any car. Now that the Red Bull is suddenly a bad car that illusion has been shattered. Maybe we just expect more from him, and Red Bull, but maybe it is just that when things don’t go your way everything becomes tougher – an overtake takes longer, a pit stop is slower, tyre degradation is higher. All the things that have not been an issue for the Red Bull team are suddenly there and their struggles are the same as everyone else now.

Chelsea – The biggest mid- and post-race chat has been McLaren v McLaren – at what point do they give up on “Papaya Rules” and just pick a driver? I’d suggest it’s too late for 2024. Oscar Piastri’s early move on Norris was brilliant and he deserved his 18 points, but conversations need to be had before 2025 begins. It could be argued that in Hungary McLaren were surprised by their own success, but they should know what they’re about by now. Will Buxton’s flabbergasted response says it all.

Aiden – Does Williams rookie Franco Colapinto still have time to secure a seat for 2025? As we know, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are locked in, but there is still the Sauber seat alongside Nico Hulkenberg. Valtteri Bottas still seems to be the favourite to take that one, but it was an impressive debut at Monza for the Argentine, finishing P12, and with the assurance that he has another eight races to see out the season, maybe Sauber’s new Chief Technical Officer Mattia Binotto will decide to take his time a bit more than he anticipated. There’s nowhere better to prove your worth than during the races themselves and Colapinto could make it work in his favour.

 

Cold take of the weekend

Graeme – Red Bull will finish 3rd in the Constructors Championship come season’s end. McLaren must be odds on to win it now and Ferrari look to be peaking at the right time, while the 3 time World Champion Team at Red Bull are scrambling. On 23 June, a touch over 2 months ago, and with Verstappen having just won his 7th of the first 10 Grand Prix this year at Barcelona, I could not imagine writing this, but here we are. Since then, there have been 5 different winners and none of them have come from Red Bull. The consistency of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes now outweighs anything Red Bull are bringing. It is going to be a spicy last 8 races of the season.

Peter – What is with Toto Wolff’s pronunciation of Loyalty… is there an extra syllable there the rest of us don’t know about?

Gavin – McLaren have just found out why most teams have a clear number one driver, and it must be hurting them so badly right now. “Papaya Rules” might be a cute way of saying “don’t crash into your teammate” but it is not the way to win championships. Sooner or later McLaren will need to make real decisions, and there will be consequences to those decisions. Of course all of this could be avoided if Lando stops losing places at the start of races.

As an aside, expect something similar at Ferrari next year with two drivers thinking they are the number one…

Chelsea – Kimi Antonelli’s first outing in a Mercedes had mixed results. After a flying first lap, he crashed heavily at Parabolica, leaving the car needed swift repairs so George Russell could take it for P2. Soon after he was named officially as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for 2025, confirming the worst-kept secret in the paddock. But what of 2026? Toto Wolff is reportedly salivating at the thought of nabbing Max Verstappen for the seat, which could mean elbows out next year between Russell and Antonelli as they vie for the spot. I love it.

Aiden – “I really feel like I’m in the same boat I’ve been in for the last eight, ten races, but now all of a sudden Max has come to similar issues, so a little bit of confusion there, but yeah, it’s clear in the data where the issue is.”

Well, that’s Sergio Perez’s take, so what does Max say?

“The car is undriveable, it’s a massive balance problem that we have, and that is not only over one lap but also the race. Last year we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever, and we basically turned it into a monster.”

Ouch. So, was Sergio’s driving as bad as everyone thought earlier this year, or perhaps the car was already a monster on his side of the garage and now things are coming ever closer together….Momentum is an important thing in any sport and just as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have found some to varying degrees, its now Red Bull who are losing theirs. We are now 2/3 of the way through the season. It’s time for this champion team to turn things around, big time.

 

Bonus Picture of the Week

McLaren celebrating a double podium.

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