The Italian Grand Prix was one of the most eventful weekends of the season thus far with both the Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship experiencing major ramifications.
Max Verstappen was only able to finish sixth at Monza, while title rival Lando Norris couldn’t convert pole position into victory, finishing behind home hero Charles Leclerc and team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Elsewhere, there were frustrations for Mercedes too with Lewis Hamilton lamenting his qualifying ability and George Russell picking up damage from a clash with Piastri on lap one.
Heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the gap between Red Bull and McLaren now stands at just eight points, while Norris is 62 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
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51 mins ago20: 54 Fraser Watson
Hamilton expecting more upgradesLewis Hamilton has predicted more big performances at Mercedes this season with more car upgrades due.
“We definitely have some updates yeah,” he said. “There’s definitely some performance to come over the course of the next few races.
“We’ll find out when we get there. We do have small bits, but I don’t know if we have anything huge coming. But hopefully, we have some more performance.”
Lewis Hamilton is in his final year with Mercedes. (Image: Getty)
2 hours ago20: 08 Fraser Watson
Ferrari announce new sponsorScuderia Ferrari have announced UniCredit as their new sponsor for the 2025 F1 season.
Before the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrrari announced they will terminate its partnership with Santander at the end of the year.
A team statement read: “Ferrari announces that, effective January 1, 2025, UniCredit S.p.A. will partner with Ferrari S.p.A., its wholly-owned subsidiary, to be at its side in its Formula 1 racing activities under a multi-year agreement.”
3 hours ago19: 08 Fraser Watson
Piastri hits out at StrollOscar Piastri has called out Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll after getting stuck behind him in Monza.
The McLaren man was trying to chase down Charles Leclerc when he came out of the pits behind Stroll, and has said: “With the pace I had at the start, I think I was catching [at] nearly two seconds per lap.
“I had a few people who weren’t very helpful, Stroll was driving like he was in his first go-kart race, so that cost a couple of seconds.”
4 hours ago18: 13 Fraser Watson
Ricciardo says sorryDaniel Ricciardo says he apologised to Nico Hulkenberg after the their collision at the Italian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo, who finished 13th, said: “I was enjoying the wheel-to-wheel racing at the start, but I made contact with Nico in turn eight. I spoke to him after the race, I thought we had space, but felt the contact so didn’t give him enough room, and I apologised.”
5 hours ago17: 14 Fraser Watson
Wolff weighs in on McLaren tactics.Toto Wolff thinks McLaren should consider favouring Lando Norris in order to make sure he challenges for the drivers’ title.
“I think as a racing team that is battling at the front suddenly, you are between a rock and a hard place because on one side they are racers like we are racers,” Wolff said, when asked about McLaren allowing their drivers to race.
“We want to make sure that the best man wins but on the other side when it starts to become dysfunctional and impacting your team’s performance, then how do you react to that?
“You don’t want to lose out on a championship by three or five points that you could have easily made.”
6 hours ago16: 12 Fraser Watson
Bearman in line to replace MagnussenKevin Magnussen won’t be able to race for Haas at the AzerGrand Prix after reaching 12 points on his super license.
Magnussen was penalised in Monza for his collision with Pierre Gasly during the recent Italian GP, which also saw him handed a 10-second penalty.
Oliver Bearman is now expected to replace him.
Kevin Magnussen won’t be competing in Baku. (Image: Getty)
7 hours ago15: 07 Fraser Watson
Brundle wants FIA actionMartin Brundle has for changes to the formation lap procedures after accusing Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu of taking ‘too long’ to make their way around at Monza.
Under the current system, race control waits until the 20th car and the medical vehicle have lined up at the back of the grid to drop the green flag and start the lights sequence off.
On the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, Brundle said of the fomation lap in Italy: “It’s too long, they need to talk to the drivers at the back about getting underway.”
FULL STORY HERE.
8 hours ago14: 13 Harry Smith
More ‘heads will roll’ at Red Bull as struggles continueRalf Schumacher has predicted that there will be more departures from the Red Bull camp as the team continue to struggle relative to rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
“For me, the issue is over for the time being,” he told Sky Germany. “The uncertainty is there, more heads will roll out of this uncertainty and many will be dissatisfied.
“Now they have to build up the new people who are there. They are also under pressure from all sides. These are all factors – Formula One is too fast.”
8 hours ago13: 31 Harry Smith
Wolff offers advice to Stella over McLaren team orders fiascoToto Wolff has advised Andrea Stella to make the tough decisions and utilise team orders to prevent Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris from battling.
“I think as a racing team that is battling at the front suddenly, you are between a rock and a hard place because on one side they are racers like we are racers,” he said after the drama in Monza.
“We want to make sure that the best man wins but on the other side when it starts to become dysfunctional and impacting your team performance then how do you react to that.
“The team is always on the losing end because if you freeze positions and have team orders then you have maybe not what our racing soul wants to do but the rational side needs to prevail.
“At the end you don’t want to lose out on a championship by three or five points that you could have easily made. So walking that tightrope is so difficult and there is no universal truth of how to handle it.”
9 hours ago12: 56 Harry Smith
Marko pokes fun at McLaren for ‘sportsmanship’Helmut Marko has denied that Charles Leclerc winning in Monza was a disappointing result for Red Bull, poking fun at McLaren in the process.
“A disappointing result? No way,” he told De Telegraaf. “We had seen this coming a bit and I want to congratulate Ferrari on the victory and thank McLaren for their sportsmanship. I appreciate that, and it makes our situation a bit better.”
The Woking-based team cut the points deficit to Red Bull to just eight points with eight races remaining in the 2024 season.
10 hours ago11: 51 Harry Smith
Horner and Vasseur suspicious over McLaren wingsChristian Horner and Fred Vasseur are both seeking clarification from the FIA on the flexi-wing solutions currently used by McLaren and Mercedes.
“I think the regulations are very clear, and I think that is an FIA issue,” Horner said in Monza. “Obviously, it is their tests that they passed, but then you have to look at the wording of the regulations.
“If you look back to 2021, certainly around Baku time, there was a change to the front-wing regulations – and even though our wings passed the test, it was exploiting air elasticity.
“It is an FIA issue, we’ll leave it and trust in them to deal with it, but if it is acceptable, then you have to join it.”
Christian Horner and Fred Vasseur want talks with the FIA (Image: Getty)
11 hours ago11: 12 Harry Smith
Sainz highlights two possible wins coming up for FerrariCarlos Sainz believes that Ferrari have a good chance to win the upcoming two races in Baku and Singapore after Charles Leclerc claimed a historic victory in front of the Tifosi at Monza.
“It has been a huge effort from the whole team to bring the upgrades but also to take the risks with strategy,” he told Sky Sports F1 after the Italian Grand Prix.
“We went through a tough phase with the tyres degrading but we made it work. Our numbers said it was possible but it was risky.
“We need to understand the next two races are similar to Monza. They have no medium or high-speed corners, which is where we struggle, so we might have a chance of winning the next couple.”
11 hours ago10: 20 Harry Smith
Magnussen furious after picking up race banKevin Magnussen has been left furious after receiving a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points at the Italian Grand Prix for a clash with Pierre Gasly.
That incident has tipped him over the 12 penalty point limit, so Magnussen will miss the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a one-race suspension.
“I don’t understand it at all,” he fumed. “You know, flat out, just completely confused. Me and Gasly raced hard into Turn 4, we had slight contact, we both missed the corner.
“Came back on track again, no damage to either car, no consequence to the race of either of us and I get a 10-second penalty.”
12 hours ago09: 32 Harry Smith
Wolff intrigued by ‘very weird’ Red Bull collapseToto Wolff has described Red Bull’s mid-season collapse as “very weird”. The championship leaders were the fourth-fastest team in Monza and are losing their grip on both titles.
“Yeah, that’s really weird,” Wolff said after Sunday’s race. “I have no insight, obviously, but that is not at all the Red Bull of the start of the year, dominant.
“I think that Max was able to keep it going for a while with his ability, but it seems now that [they have collapsed], from the sheer results, and that’s what I see without understanding, without knowing what’s going on inside, because it could be blip, also.
“That was probably one of the worst races that we’ve seen [from Red Bull] for many years, to have no pace.”
13 hours ago08: 36 Harry Smith
Verstappen bemoans lack of Monza-specific rear wingMax Verstappen has cursed the team’s decision not to bring a Monza-specific rear-wing to the Italian Grand Prix.
The reigning world champions could only manage P6 and P8 finishes in Italy, bringing them closer to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
“Although it doesn’t help here that we don’t have a special Monza rear wing,” Verstappen said after qualifying “That’s not ideal, considering the top speed. We never had that in the past years either, but then, the car was good enough to compensate for that.
“Now it’s something we might have to do next year. Now the team has made a different choice and they’d rather spend the money on something else. But if you already have problems with the car, this makes it even worse. But of course, it’s not our only problem.”
Max Verstappen was frustrated in Monza (Image: Getty)
14 hours ago07: 48 Harry Smith
Piastri set for internal review after Norris move in MonzaMcLaren have promised an internal review of Oscar Piastri’s ambitious move on Lando Norris during the opening lap of the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.
The young Australian failed to take the lead at Turn One but launched an “aggressive” attack around the outside of the Della Roggia chicane, catching his team-mate off guard and snatching the lead.
“We will have to review together with the drivers, look at the videos, understand their point of view.” said team principal Andrea Stealla. “And then we will assess together whether they were fully compliant or not.
“We will take the learning if there is any learning that we need to take. And then we will adjust the Papaya Rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship.”
14 hours ago07: 40 Harry Smith
Verstappen frustrated with Hamilton at the Italian Grand PrixMax Verstappen was left frustrated with Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, suggesting that the seven-time world champion failed to give him enough space on track.
After nearly coming together with the Mercedes driver, he fumed on the team radio: “Lewis didn’t leave a car’s width. I was penalised for that as well, so…”
The Red Bull driver ended up stuck behind the rear wing of the W15 for most of the race and couldn’t find a way past before the chequered flag, settling for a P6 finish in Monza.
14 hours ago07: 28 Harry Smith
Good morning!Good morning! Still recovering from the drama of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix? Well don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Stay tuned to Express Sport’s live F1 blog as we keep you in the loop with the latest fallout from the battle at Monza.
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