01/09/2024
NEWS STORY
The beating red heart of Ferrari was the strongest of all at the Monza circuit, as Charles Leclerc won the Italian Grand Prix for the second time, to secure his seventh career win in Formula 1. It was Ferrari's 20th win in this event, its 246th in total.
Leclerc took the chequered flag ahead of the two McLaren drivers, beating Oscar Piastri by 2"664 and Lando Norris by 6"153. These three had the honour of wearing the special edition of the Podium Cap, in white with the Italian flag on its peak.
The three drivers and Ferrari's Sporting Director, Diego Ioverno were all presented with a VROOOM trophy, designed by the artist Andrea Sala, through the now usual collaboration between Pirelli and Pirelli HangarBicocca at the Italian Grand Prix.
The race saw a repeat of the qualifying scenario in that the top four teams occupied the top eight places, with the last two points positions going to Alex Albon, ninth for Williams and Kevin Magnussen tenth for Haas.
At the start, the majority (14) of the drivers went with the Medium. The Hards were chosen by the two Red Bulls, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) and Valtteri Bottas (Sauber). Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver not to make it to the chequered flag. Of the remaining 19, nine pitted once, ten did two or more (Stroll, three).
Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls) ran the longest stint of all, completing 42 laps on the Hard. Esteban Ocon led the way on the Medium, running a 21 lap second stint on the C4.
Formula 1 action continues next week at the Monza circuit, with two days of development testing focussed on tyre compounds for next season. Three teams will be providing cars and drivers for this important work for 2025: on Tuesday 3 September, George Russell will be on track in the Mercedes and Liam Lawson will drive a Red Bull. On the Wednesday, the New Zealander will switch to driving a Racing Bulls car.
Mario Isola: "A really exciting race followed by an amazing show from the fans. The enthusiasm of the Monza crowd is incredible and contagious, and really gives one goosebumps. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, as winning this Grand Prix must be an incredible feeling for them.
"On the technical front, this was a Grand Prix that had it all: battles on track between the drivers with some spectacular overtaking moves, such as Piastri's on Norris and a strategic confrontation between those who had opted to stop twice and those on a one-stop.
"We said prior to the event that the one-stop would be the quickest and that proved to be correct. The fact that nearly all the teams had kept two sets of Hards for the race gave them the flexibility to go with different scenarios if necessary. One should keep in mind that no one had sufficient data to fully evaluate the C3 performance on the completely new track surface.
"Management of graining was key and it was probably affected by the track evolution. Initial analysis of the data and the visual checks of the tyres at the end of each stint showed that graining was very significant in the first part of the race, especially on the front left, but less so on the left rear, with both the Hard and Medium, while in the following stints the phenomenon was less present. A vital factor therefore was the drivers' feeling during the race and their ability to manage the tyres, especially for those who stuck with the strategy they had opted for at the start, namely the one-stop."