Monza brought back Abu Dhabi memories – Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton admitted the ending to Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix brought back memories of his Abu Dhabi title decider against Max Verstappen, with the Mercedes driver on this occasion agreeing with the Safety Car application.
The safety car was brought out when the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo stopped on track with a few laps to go, and while the car was recovered by the final lap the rules were applied correctly and the race was not restarted.
Hamilton, who finished fifth on Sunday, told Sky in Italy that he would have “loved to fight the guys behind me” if given the chance to restart but said he ultimately agreed with the finish given the finale last year. Hamilton said, “It always brings memories back. That is the rules how it should be, right?”
“There’s only one time in the history of the sport where they haven’t done the rules like that today and that’s the one where it changed the result of the championship. But it is what it is.”
The conclusion of the investigation into what happened last December, was that then race director Michael Masi failed to apply the rules correctly. The feeling is while Red Bull and Ferrari did want the race to restart, Niels Wittich did apply the rules correctly.
While both Red Bull and Ferrari said they wanted to restart Sunday’s race, FIA’s Race Director Niels Wittich, who is one of the replacements for Masi, correctly applied the rules.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1, “I think this time they followed the rules,” “Maybe they could have done it a lap sooner, and they accepted the race ends under the Safety Car.
Verstappen not worried about booing
Max Verstappen says being booed after his Italian Grand Prix win “not going to spoil my day” after the Monza crowd voiced its frustration at how the race ended. The Red Bull driver recovered from a five-place grid drop for an engine change to take his fifth consecutive victory by beating home favourite Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen had been leading the race after Ferrari polesitter Charles Leclerc made a second pitstop to change onto a set of soft tyres. The Red Bull driver, who was running a one-stop strategy on medium tyres, was holding the gap to Leclerc when Daniel Ricciardo stopped his McLaren between the two Lesmo corners with his car stuck in gear.
The car could not be moved back behind the barriers and required a crane to lift it from the roadside. While the leaders pitted for fresh tyres in anticipation of a restart and a late sprint to the finish, the race remained under safety car conditions to the end.
The outcome was greeted by boos from the Monza crowd, while Verstappen was also booed during his post-race interview in parc ferme conducted by Martin Brundle. While booing hasn’t been as common this season the intense title fight last season, it has been there in Austria and Monza, when the Tifosi who felt Leclerc was denied the chance to fight him for the win at the end when the race finished behind the safety car.
Verstappen told Motorsport.com, “It happens, everyone speaks to me about it with the booing and stuff but at the end of the day I am here to try and win the race which we’ve done.”
“Some people of course they cannot appreciate that because they are very passionate fans for a different team. It is what it is. It is not going to spoil my day, I am just enjoying the moment.
Leclerc added he felt F1 fans should stop booing any driver, while the use of flares in the grandstands came up again at Monza. Two flares were thrown on the Zandvoort track during qualifying last weekend, while concerns over track visibility being a safety issue have also been raised.
De Vries grateful for Monza “interview”
Nyck de Vries says he is grateful for his Italian Grand Prix “job interview” as a Williams stand-in “played into our hands” as questions over his Formula One future intensify. The Dutchman was brought in to replace Alex Albon after he was taken to hospital with appendicitis.
He qualified thirteenth and with the various gride penalties started eighth, before going on to finish the race ninth despite receiving a reprimand for erratic driving under the late safety car. With Nicholas Latifi’s future at Williams uncertain and several other seats available in F1 for 2023, de Vries’ strong maiden outing has come at the right time.
Asked if he felt the Italian GP was something of an audition for him in regards to earning a full-time seat in 2023, the Mercedes reserve said: “I mean, any time you’re in the car you’re expected to do a good job. And any time you get a chance to drive a Formula 1 car it is a kind of job interview and an audition.
“You’ve got to take those opportunities, but you’ve also got to use them sensibly because there’s always a trade-off of doing too much and too little. But I am just grateful that it worked out well and played into our hands. We took some points and it was a great performance. And no one can take that away from us.”
Albon suffered respiratory failure following appendix surgery
Alex Albon suffered respiratory failure and was treated in intensive care following appendix surgery at the weekend. The British-Thai driver underwent surgery on Saturday after being diagnosed with appendicitis.
The 26-year-old had an operation on Saturday but suffered “post-operative anaesthetic complications” and was put on a ventilator. Albon came off the ventilator on Sunday morning and is now back on a general ward in Monza, Italy. Williams says he should return home on Tuesday.
A team statement read: “Further to Alex Albon’s diagnosis of appendicitis on the morning of Saturday 10 September, he was admitted to hospital for treatment. He underwent successful surgery on Saturday lunchtime.
“Following surgery, Alex suffered with unexpected post-operative anaesthetic complications which led to respiratory failure, a known but uncommon complication. He was re-intubated and transferred to intensive care for support. He made excellent progress overnight and was able to be removed from mechanical ventilation yesterday (Sunday) morning.”
One of my best races – Norris
Lando Norris thinks his Italian Grand Prix was one of his best F1 drives after recovering from a poor start and a slow pitstop. The various grid penalties saw Norris start third but he made a poor getaway put down to an incorrect setting beyond his control.
Norris then got stuck in the DRS train behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo and decided to extend his first stint on mediums. That looked to work perfectly and get him back out ahead of the gaggle of cars until a slow pitstop for softs shuffled him back in traffic again.
Then the late safety car prevented him from making further progress. When asked by Motorsport.com if he felt he did a good job to recover from his mishaps, Norris said it was “probably one of my best races in Formula One.”
Adding “I just went extremely long on the first stint, I think I boxed like lap 35 or 36. I would say it was probably one of my best races in Formula One in terms of management and being patient with things.”
“It was definitely my best this year, but almost in Formula One. P7 doesn’t feel like it accomplishes a lot for what I feel like I did today, but that’s life. It happens, we’ll learn from it and move on.”
Norris believes without that slow stop he would have had the chance to hold off Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. He said he had an extremely poor launch because of incorrect settings, followed by a poor stop probably cost them the opportunity to fight Hamilton.
Adding, “Whether or not he would have passed me after a few laps, quite possibly, but we would have had a race and an opportunity. And maybe I could have hung on until the safety car. So yeah, fifth was where we should have been, but we ended up seventh.”
Norris was warned by the team he should expect a poor start because they cannot adjust the settings of the car after the one minute signal meaning he couldn’t have done anything.
Adding to Norris’ issues, Ricciardo’s retirement after an engine shutdown made for a flawed race for McLaren in its battle for fourth in the constructors’ championship with Alpine.
Despite scoring fewer points than hoped, team boss Seidl said that the car’s pace was encouraging, especially after it was nowhere on similarly high-speed Spa.
