F1 Today – Italian Prixview – 08/09/2022
Ferrari needs to avoid distractions
Charles Leclerc says that Ferrari must avoid being distracted and say united amidst questions about the future of team principal Mattia Binotto. After a strong start to the season the Monacan looked set to mount a serious challenge for the title, but a series of mistakes has allowed Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team to open dominant advantages.
A calamitous pit stop for Carlos Sainz at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix was the latest in a series of blunders from Ferrari, adding pressure ahead of the teams home race this weekend at Monza. Responding to those rumours, Leclerc said, “There are always rumours around a Formula 1 team and especially with Ferrari but I think what is important in those moments is not to get distracted with whatever is being said.”
“We are very united as a team and I think we need to keep on going like this. We’ve shown that we’ve been great from last year to this year with this kind of performance and we need to keep going in that direction. I didn’t hear that rumour in particular but obviously, we have to focus on our own job.”
Leclerc’s third place at Zandvoort secured just his third podium in ten races, but the Monacan is bracing himself for a “difficult weekend” at Monza.
The characteristics of the circuit are similar to those of Spa, where Verstappen was untouchable as he won with ease from fourteenth on the grid, having taken an engine penalty. Leclerc admits on paper that this weekend is going to be difficult, where he is expecting the circuit isn’t going to suit the characteristics of the car.
Adding, “But again, we’ve had some good and bad surprises this year, so hopefully this one is one of the good ones and that we overperform compared to what we expect.”
Ferrari will also be aware that Mercedes is becoming a threat in the constructors, there is now a thirty-point gap between them in the battle for third. But Leclerc insists that the team’s home Grand Prix only has a positive impact on him.
Ferrari must react at Monza
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has admitted the team must react at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix following another disappointing weekend at Zandvoort. Last weekend Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz qualified second and third on the Dutch Grand Prix grid respectively, both within a tenth of polesitter Max Verstappen.
However on what was expected to be a strong circuit for Ferrari, the team were unable to challenge Red Bull, instead, they were the ones under pressure from Mercedes. Leclerc was beaten to second by George Russell, while a costly pitstop error and penalty saw Sainz drop down to eighth.
That means Leclerc is now over four race wins behind champion-elect Verstappen while Ferrari now need to battle Mercedes for second in the constructors rather than chasing after Red Bull. Binotto acknowledged that “it is certainly a difficult moment” for Ferrari but urged his team to react at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, where it will receive the support of tens of thousands of Tifosi.
Binotto told Motorsport.com, “It is certainly a difficult moment right now and for our team because we are not getting the results with the expectations that we have got. We need to react and Monza, we will have the Tifosi there after COVID and to have them in the grandstands will be important for us as they cheer for us and boost us as a team.”
Adding “Right now, we need to find some good results for the spirit and the mood.” Ferrari knew it would be difficult at Spa to compete with the top speed of Red Bull, but the Italian manufacturer had hoped to strike back at Zandvoort. Instead, though it was beaten by both Red Bull and Mercedes.
Binotto says his main concern is that the team has had three races in a row where they have not been competitive making life more difficult for the team. Explaining “we cannot fight for the win with Max but because we do not have the pace to keep the Mercedes behind.
“I think it is now three races in a row that we are not at what should be our potential. This is something we need to address as soon as possible because there are a few races left from now until the end of the season. We are still looking for victories and our intention is to win at every single race, including Monza.”
Red Bull explains why Perez & Verstappen run different floors
Red Bull has explained the decision to run different floors on Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen’s cars has been partly triggered by cost. The two drivers have diverged on their floors a fortnight ago have diverged on floors since the Belgian Grand Prix last month.
Verstappen has run the floor that has worked so well for him in the early phase of the season, while Perez has been switched to a newer version that was trialled by both drivers in Austria and France but appeared to not deliver the step forward hoped for.
Last weekend, Perez revealed at Zandvoort he would be sticking with his current floor for a few more races, even though it appears not to be the optimum version and he has been battling to get on terms with his teammate for a little bit.
Team principal Christian Horner has revealed that the floor decision has been forced on financial grounds, with the squad most likely unwilling to build another old-spec floor at this stage of the season amid the restrictions of the cost cap. All the teams have been struggling with the rising cost of inflation, caused by the pandemic recovery and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Horner has equally played down suggestions that the floor is the reason why Perez has been so far behind Verstappen in pace terms in recent outings. He told Motorsport.com “You’re talking minuscule differences. It’s predominantly been driven by the availability of spare parts. I think the difference is probably less than a tenth, or approximately maybe a tenth of a second.”
“But Checo had a tricky race [at Zandvoort], and unfortunately getting jumped at the restart, and I think probably with hindsight, his tyre preference was the medium. I think with 20/20 vision, the soft at the end would have been probably a better tyre to attack. There’s still decent points for him.”
Perez had been more comfortable with the car at the start of the season, but naturally developed towards championship leader Verstappen.
Alpine considering fourteen drivers
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer says that the team has a shortlist of drivers to fill “the best seat open in F1”, with Pierre Gasly tipped as the favourite to replace Fernando Alonso.
The French team have an unexpected opening for 2023 after Fernando Alonso signed for Aston Martin, while they then lost a contract battle to McLaren for the services of the previously-announced Oscar Piastri.
Gasly is the overwhelming favourite to land the seat, and Alpine has been in discussions with Red Bull over releasing the highly-rated Alpha Tauri driver, but Szafnauer says the team have a “long list”. Szafnauer told Sky Sports “We just want to understand all those that are available”
“We’ve got a long list. I’ve mentioned fourteen before and it’s about right. Now we’ve got to whittle that down to three or four and then look at all those and see which one’s the best fit.” But the German added the team were in no rush to make a decision despite being an attractive proposition in the driver market.
Alpine are currently fourth in the standings and the top three have all firmed up their 2023 line-ups. Szafnauer says after losing Piastri the team needs to look at what it can do better, learn from it and how it would do it differently in the future.
But he believes the team has the best free seat in F1 at the moment, and they need to find the right driver.
When it became apparent that Alpine was going to lose Piastri, a few names, such as Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher were touted early on. But Alpine now seem to be centring in on Gasly.
Gasly has shone in F1 since joining the grid in 2017, minus a difficult half-a-season at Red Bull, and has been desperate to make the step up. A deal is dependent on Alpha Tauri securing a replacement, with American Colton Herta being targeted, but Gasly ticks many boxes.
Hamilton starts from a back with a fresh power unit
Lewis Hamilton is set to start the Italian Grand Prix from the back of the grid as Mercedes fit his fourth power unit meaning he will exceed his engine allocation. The change was expected after he lost an engine a fortnight ago in an opening lap crash at the Belgian Grand Prix.
There was a 45G impact in that collision and Mercedes says they are still working on a “recovery plan” for that Power Unit, which cannot be run this weekend. It hasn’t been confirmed yet how many engine components have been changed, but it will mean the seven-time champion starts at the back of the grid unless others are given the same penalty.
Hamilton, who claimed three straight podiums before the summer break, retired in Belgium before having a great chance of the win at the Dutch Grand Prix before a combination of Safety Cars and strategy hampered his chances. The seven-time world champion is currently sixth in the drivers’ standings.
Hamilton will likely not be the only one dropping further back than his qualifying position for Sunday’s race.
Valtteri Bottas’ engine penalty in the Alfa Romeo has already been confirmed while Ferrari is also thought to be considering a grid drop for their home race, along with title leaders Red Bull for Sergio Perez.
Monza is the best place of the next three races to take a penalty given the high chances to overtake more easily.
Mercedes not taking things for granted
Mercedes insist sit is not taking it for granted that it can fight for wins at every Formula One race from now on, despite some recent strong showings. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were both in contention at Zandvoort for victory last weekend, before their chances of victory were wrecked by late VSC and safety car.
The strong result in Zandvoort follows on from Russell grabbing his first pole and the team’s first pole of the season in Budapest, where he led race early on. While Spa was more difficult for the team, Mercedes said it had learned the lessons and how to extract the best performance from its car.
Despite feeling that it has got on top of the issues it has had with bumpy circuits, CEO and team principal Toto Wolff is wary that there are still some tracks, especially bumpy venues like Austin, that can serve to trip it up. he said, “Our performance is fundamentally ingrained in the car concept as it is, but we are now understanding better how everything interacts.”
“I think we can tune the car more precisely to fit and to target the performance window. Having said that, there will be races that are better for us and there might be some on the calendar that will be very difficult. Austin is something that we discussed: it can be a very difficult one. So you need to stay realistic in my opinion.”
Wolff accepted the team wouldn’t be fighting for pole positions at all the remaining races, but need to use it to get back to that point next season. As well as the way the W13 does not like bumpy circuits because the car cannot run as close to the ground as needed to produce its peak downforce, Hamilton and Russell have also battled a lack of straight-line speed.
Mercedes know that key is now understanding what is needed to make progress for next season so the car performs better everywhere. Wolff adds, “That bad one [at Spa] was really necessary in order to comprehend why it was going good here [in Zandvoort. As weird it sounds for a high-tech science lab on wheels, the data doesn’t seem to correlate this year. And so we are gathering data on the track in order to put the puzzle together.”
Wolff has also suggested that the team may be willing to take a few more risks in its bid to grab a win this year, after its safety car gamble at the Dutch Grand Prix.
“Weird feeling” as Ricciardo returns to Monza
Daniel Ricciardo says returning to Monza as last year’s winner will be a “weird feeling” ahead of leaving McLaren and possibly the sport at the end of 2022. Ricciardo last year took the team’s first win in nine years ahead of teammate Lando Norris, but that has proved to be the highlight of his time with the team.
But Ricciardo’s Monza success proved a rare highlight in his troublesome McLaren stint, leading to the Woking team’s decision to end his contract a year early and move for Alpine junior and reigning F2 champion Oscar Piastri instead.
Ricciardo heads to the scene of his last win off the back of a disastrous Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying eighteenth and finishing seventeenth in Zandvoort last weekend, with the Australian acknowledging his Monza return will evoke “weird feelings” amid his McLaren struggles.
Ricciardo told Motorsport.com, “I’m sure there’ll be some weird feelings going back. Certainly, maybe some happy sad feelings, because it was such a big moment last year, but I think we’re in a different position this year. I’d love to say we would be fighting for a podium, but I think we know the truth at the moment where we are.”
While his future in the sport remains uncertain, he added that he was still motivated to finish his time with McLaren on a high, and not “go out on a seventeenth place.” Ricciardo is looking to channel combat sport and get back up after being knocked down, that is the position he wants to put himself in.
He added, “I think by the end of the season for sure I will want to just switch off and spend some time home. But I’m not ready for it yet. It has been at times uncomfortable, the last couple of weekends, but I’m not ready to just go and hide and close the door yet.”
Tsunoda rejects conspiracies around Zandvoort retirement
Yuki Tsunoda rejects conspiracy theories that resulted from his Dutch Grand Prix retirement and wants to ask fans suggesting them “how does your brain look like?” The Japanese driver was forced to retire after feeling one of the wheels wasn’t attached properly, pulled over, and unfastened his seatbelts as he was ready to retire.
He was then told to keep going and trundled back to the pits. There, he took on a different set of tyres and was seen having his seatbelts buckled up again before returning to the track.
Apparent issues persisted, however, and Tsunoda was instructed to pull over and call it a day. The problem was later diagnosed as differential related. His stoppage on track allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the opportunity to pit for fresh tyres which helped curb Mercedes’ one-stop strategy.
This resulted in a series of conspiracy theories and wild accusations being directed at Red Bull and Alpha Tauri, suggesting that Tsunoda’s retirement was part of a gambit to win the race. Asked about those theories by Autosport, he said, “Well, it’s funny that fans are really excited to always create the story.”
“Straight away, I felt some strange things at the rear part, which I thought first was the tyre. I got radio from the team to stop the car in a safe place at the side of the track. So I just stopped, and I nearly switched off as well. But I got told again from the team that we didn’t find any issues. That’s why we restarted, we fitted a new tyre, but I felt clearly that there was an issue again.”
Tsunoda says the simple fact was there was an issue with the car, which means there was not room to complain to the team, or create conspiracy theories.
Asked if F1 fans had a legitimate reason to ask about the possibility of unscrupulous behaviour given past instances in F1, Tsunoda said that he did not want to know, and suggested that the rumourmongers should take ‘an MRI scan’ to check there was nothing wrong with their brain.
Tsunoda said in response to fan cynicism, “I don’t want to know and I don’t care. I want to actually ask how your brain looks like, scan the MRI and see what’s wrong. It’s funny how they create the story.”
“Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri are completely different teams. Well, you know, it’s not as [completely different] as the other teams but still, it’s a different name. We’re in Italy, they’re in the UK. We perform in completely different fields.”
The weekend ahead
This championship the feeling is has definitely swung towards Red Bull, it will be interesting if we begin to get the questions after this weekend if Ferrari doesn’t strike back I feel its definitely over. Red Bull have operationally been better, but Ferrari have been better in a straight line like we saw in Spielberg.
As we have been saying at the last two races this is an old school circuit, but what is going to concern the teams is this is the fastest circuit of the season and that means that the stopping zones are big. Brakes and tyre wear are going to be of concern that possibly will lead to accidents and safety cars, thus again making this race about reacting to events.
Ferrari are under even more pressure with this being their home race and they operationally need to be delivering if they are to beat Red Bull. Time is running out and they know that, Charles Leclerc needs to have the results starting to going their way.
Mercedes we need to not be over confident but not counting they out, need to maximise the results now its appears they have got on top of the porpoising. They look better in race trim and we know that, can they get on top of that issue of qualifying we had a fortnight ago?