Monza smiles at the home team. Starting from Carlos Sainz’s splendid qualifying, drivers and the team executed a flawless race without mistakes. Finishing the race in third and fourth positions should not be a cause for disappointment. No one could have done better against this Red Bull. Congratulations, of course, to Max Verstappen for securing his tenth consecutive victory and setting a new record, but the RB19 is an impressive weapon, and today Sergio Perez, starting in P5, knew how to exploit it perfectly, securing second place with a series of overtakes, first on George Russell, then on Charles Leclerc, and finally on Carlos Sainz.
Summary of race strategies
Before discussing Ferrari’s extraordinary weekend, let’s take a moment to look at the strategies seen today. As we hypothesized in the morning (read here), the fastest strategy was to start with the Medium compound and then switch to the Hard in the final part of the race. This choice was made by 10 out of 20 drivers, including the top five (Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Albon, Norris, Alonso, Sargeant, and Stroll).
Hamilton and Bottas are the only ones within the top 10 to start with the Hard tires and switch to Mediums between the 25th and 27th laps. The other driver to start with the Hard tires is Magnussen, but he would finish 18th, opting for a double stop H-M-M strategy.
Piastri, on the other hand, could have also scored points using the M-H strategy if the contact with Hamilton while the latter was trying to overtake him hadn’t caused damage to his front wing. The Australian was forced to return to the pits for repairs and to switch to another set of Mediums, while Lewis, penalized by 5 seconds, managed to finish the race in P6 without damage by creating a 7-second gap between him and Alex Albon in just over 4 laps. Oscar also secured the fastest lap of the race (1’25″072), but since he finished outside the top ten, neither he nor any other competitors earned the additional point today.
M-H-M was the last strategy seen during the Monza race, employed by Lawson, Zhou, Gasly, and Hulkenberg.
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Ferrari can and should celebrate at Monza
Given the superiority of the Austrian team, it’s only right that Ferrari’s drivers, mechanics, engineers, and fans are happy with today’s performance. Everyone did a job that bordered on perfection. Carlos and Charles gave their all in every condition, even when they competed in the duel that had everyone on the edge of their seats in the final stages of the race to secure third place.
Charles Leclerc seemed to have a bit more in the end, but Sainz did a splendid job throughout the weekend, securing a brilliant pole position. Even though the Monegasque had a better race pace, the Spaniard deserved the podium for all his efforts. Great work from both, especially for staying composed in every situation, with the adrenaline and the desire to step onto the podium in those highly intense final laps.
Congratulations also to the team. With only one pit stop to make and the gap so tight between Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc, and Perez when transitioning from Mediums to Hards, it wasn’t easy to time the call for the drivers to pit. Sainz’s call on the 19th lap was precise and impeccable, beating Red Bull to the punch. With Max Verstappen having already taken the lead by passing the Spaniard at the Second Variante on the 15th lap, Ferrari’s goal became to maintain second and third positions ahead of Perez. Carlos Sainz’s pit stop on the 19th lap prompted Max Verstappen to enter the pit lane on the next lap. Along with the Dutchman, Charles Leclerc also pitted, thus protecting his position against the Mexican, who would align with the strategy of the three leaders on the 21st lap.
Everything was perfect. The only problem, of course, was that Perez had a much stronger race pace and tire management. Charles Leclerc managed to hold on until the 32nd lap, while Carlos Sainz put on an absolutely impeccable defense, yielding to the Mexican only on the 46th lap of the Italian Grand Prix.
The only offnote was the anomaly in Charles Leclerc’s lap times
From this, it’s clear that the SF-23, despite being overtaken by both Red Bulls, showed remarkable pace and tire management. The position of the pair dressed in red was never in danger compared to Mercedes and the other following teams.
The only off-note remains Charles Leclerc’s pace, which strangely slowed in the laps leading up to Perez’s overtake. His pace then returned to extraordinarily competitive levels immediately afterward. Perhaps the Monegasque thought he wouldn’t be able to fend off the Mexican’s attacks and might have decided to follow him to try to attack Carlos Sainz in the end and secure the podium. This could be a hypothesis, but unfortunately, we will never know the truth since Charles is the only one who can reveal it.
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