Italian GP
A stunning victory for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing in the Italian GP was a welcome breath of fresh air in a season largely dominated by McLaren, and for once the Woking team had to cede the spotlight to its most consistent rival.
Verstappen not only took pole but he also had to repass Lando Norris after losing out in the first couple of laps, and thereafter he pulled away to win easily.
In essence Red Bull had such a poor weekend in Monza last year the engineers worked hard to compensate, and in the words of new team boss Laurent Mekies they “overshot the target” and came up with a super competitive low-drag package for the special demands of the high speed track. This was also the first win for the team under Mekies since the departure of Christian Horner.
McLaren in contrast ran a higher downforce setup that worked well for its car, but on this occasion it simply wasn’t quite good enough to match Verstappen.
Once again the team managed to tie itself in knots when a slow pitstop for Norris saw him cede his second place to Oscar Piastri. The team accepted that it was unfair to Norris as it was not his fault, and the positions were reversed, creating a swing of six points, and leaving the gap at 31 in Piastri’s favour.
It was an understandable if controversial decision, and with eight races to go it won’t be the last time that McLaren boss Andrea Stella will face some tricky choices as he tries to balance the interests of his two stars.
Monza is of course the biggest race of the year for Scuderia Ferrari, and the team celebrated 50 years since Niki Lauda won the 1975 title with a special livery – while also confusingly putting its drivers in blue as one of several races where main sponsor Hewlett Packard is given prominence.
A winner in Italy last year, Charles Leclerc kept the fans happy with a solid run to fourth, while Lewis Hamilton recovered from a grid penalty to charge from 10th to P6 by the flag. Hamilton is still struggling to come to terms with the SF-25, but he insists that he is making progress – although he has to more or less start from zero at each new track.
It was a so-so weekend for Mercedes with George Russell starting and finishing fifth, and Kimi Antonelli only ninth after picking up a penalty for an incident. Team boss Toto Wolff described the youngster’s weekend as “underwhelming,” an unexpected barb given how much support Antonelli has in the camp. However there’s no doubt that he has to start showing some signs of the superstar talent that many think he has.
Once again Williams was best of the rest, despite having to overcome the self-imposed handicap of an ongoing struggle to make the Pirelli tyres work in qualifying.
Alex Albon started only 14th but he demonstrated the potential of the car by getting up to seventh, while Carlos Sainz missed the points after a tangle with Ollie Bearman.
Other drives of note came from Gabriel Bortoleto, in the top 10 all weekend for Sauber and eighth at the flag, and Zandvoort star Isack Hadjar, who started from the pitlane but still made it to P10 and to grab the final point.
His team mate Liam Lawson had a clash with Yuki Tsunoda which left the Japanese driver incensed – not least because they drive for sister teams and Lawson wants to return to the second RBR seat.
Meanwhile there was huge frustration for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin as a rare suspension failure cost the former World Champion a decent result. Mechanical retirements are rare these days, and Alonso has suffered more than most this year.
Off track the biggest news of the weekend was the struggling Alpine team’s confirmation that Pierre Gasly will now stay on for three further seasons, until 2028. While such security makes sense for both parties it was perhaps unexpected given the uncertainties over the competitiveness of everyone’s package in 2026 and beyond.
Gasly it could be argued might have wanted the freedom to move elsewhere if the new Alpine-Mercedes combination isn’t good enough, while if the team does make a huge step it potentially becomes attractive to top class drivers who haven’t been so lucky with their current teams. However, in the latter instance Flavio Briatore still has another seat that has yet to be filled for 2026, never mind beyond that.
Behind the scenes the main topic of conversation in the Monza paddock was the long-term future power unit regulations.
Even before the next generation of hybrids due to race in 2026-‘30 has taken to the track the F1 world has acknowledged that its time for a return to basics, and there is a lot of momentum now behind the push for a return to V8s with a smaller hybrid element and sustainable fuel.
One of the key questions is when the change should take place, and FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem has been pushing for it to be sooner rather later, potentially as early as 2029, thus cutting the lifespan of the next generation of PUs to just three seasons.
That date and 2030 have been discussed, but there is no consensus, and some of the five manufacturers are dead set against an early change. A meeting due for this week to discuss the situation has been called off, and it remains to be seen what the final direction will be.
