[motor_breathing]

Boy oh boy what a race for a ferrari fan .. and LEC you earned a fan today! VET less said the better. I think Ferrari should fire Givonazzi and boot VET to Alpha to pair with his mate Kimster. And if ferrai seat becomes open Daniel has an exit clause and they should get him. Two hungry drivers is what ferrari needs.


Seeing today's performance of LEC, I think VET's help in belgian GP win seems a bit overplayed. This kid surely can protect his lead.



And finally if HAM had any thoughts of driving the red car before retirement, he would have thrown that in the dustbin yesterday.

[Desmosedici]

What a Beautiful Drive from Charles. Brilliant. This kid has it in him to take Ferrari back to the top. Future looks bright with Max and Charles.

Regd Seb, facepalm. He should go to some other team. He has had chances and he has blown it. Don't think Ferrari needs him. Ric should be up there in the other Ferrari. That'll spice it up.

So happy to see a Ferrari win at Monza.

[Vid6639]

The whole race, I was on edge the whole time. What a brilliant drive by Eclair. To fend off the attack from both Mercedes from start to finish is absolutely an insane feat. Leclerc was amazing to be so new and soak so much pressure of 2 predators on your back the whole race.

Both Mercs were relentless and Lewis clearly showed why he's the #1 driver in the team, He was on the button the whole time never did he let the gap go above 1s to remain in DRS contention. It was just unbelievable the way he was able to keep on the pressure lap after lap after lap. He knew that if he went out of DRS, the Ferrari would pull away. Something Bottas wasn't able to do as well.

Ferrari's strategy to put hard tyres was a master stroke. Pat on the back to the guy who took that call. Else this race was gone if Eclair's tyres were medium and wearing out like Lewis. Bottas would have taken it easy.

Sad for Vettel. HE's seriously out of form. This was a golden opportunity he missed. Ferrari could have easily applied pressure from behind and given Leclerc breathing space and with the tyre strategy, Vettel might have been up to 3rd is not second. This was a big miss.

Vettel is handing over the #1 driver in the team to Leclerc, which is no bad thing. Today Leclerc was hung out to dry by Vettel. Vettel's support would have been ideal and less pressure for Leclerc.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Charles LECLERC is the new star

You said it! Despite missing out on two race wins (team orders + reliability issue), he is ahead of Vettel in the championship

Question: At this stage in the championship, will biased Ferrari now support LeClerc? Will it now give team orders to Vettel? Just 7 races left!


Source

[nikhilthegunner]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Ferrari's strategy to put hard tyres was a master stroke. Pat on the back to the guy who took that call. Else this race was gone if Eclair's tyres were medium and wearing out like Lewis. Bottas would have taken it easy.

Thank goodness that Ferrari took the right decision because normally what we've seen is that the driver performs well but then there's a strategy error by the team or the strategy is right but the driver screws up. This time, right strategy and great execution by Leclerc.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Vettel is handing over the #1 driver in the team to Leclerc, which is no bad thing. Today Leclerc was hung out to dry by Vettel. Vettel's support would have been ideal and less pressure for Leclerc.

The way Leclerc handled the pressure was extremely remarkable! It's only his second season in F1 and he drove like a champion. I highly doubt Vettel would have done anything much seeing as he isn't able to extract performance from the car the way Charles is able to. Plus, I don't think the tyre strategy would have changed even if Vettel was in contention because Ferrari knew the degradation levels of the medium and they must have known that the medium wouldn't have made it to the end given the pressure being applied by Mercedes.

Originally Posted by GTO

Question: At this stage in the championship, will biased Ferrari now support LeClerc? Will it now give team orders to Vettel? Just 7 races left!

Looking at it from a team perspective, they wouldn't be wrong to do so. They have to put their weight behind someone who can deliver results and Leclerc has proved that he can. Vettel unfortunately hasn't been delivering for 4 years. How much longer can they wait?

[Hatari]

What a great race! Happy for Ferrari and the Tifosi, that ended a 9 year long wait at Monza.

Good strategic move by Mercedes pitting Lewis a little earlier than usual, forcing the Ferrari pit stop and letting Bottas go long. There was mega pressure by Lewis lap after lap, unfortunately when Bottas's turn came he fluffed it twice. Thats the difference I suppose between World Champion and a good driver.

What an embarrassment for Vettel, letting the team down. A mistake followed by utter brain fade in the attempt to rejoin the track.

Renault coming alive was quite a surprise. Hope McLaren react in the races to come.

[mayankk]

Mercedes did nothing wrong yesterday, and typically they are able to come out on top with spotless strategy (This year. They are no strangers to pulling goofies) against total blunders by Ferrari. This time they could do nothing about a good driver in a comparable car with a team behind him.
I think mostly this was in part due to the red guys completely ignoring whatever situation Vettel landed himself in. "Let him do what he wants, he's in notice" .
Gutted for Lewis, but it was good how he managed to let things go even with a handful of laps available. Lewis of old, maybe from McL days, would not have conceded with so much sense.
All things standing, power hungry circuits are where the Ferrari has the upper hand, but the deficit is much too large for any effective change in the championship.

[Sarath_MoJa]

A race that I watched from Start to Podium Presentation after so many years. Leclerc is a true masterclass. Ferrari is lucky to have him on their side. Vettel is gradually losing his sheen. His temperament is taking a negative turn.
Mercedes used all their tricks up their sleeve to pressure Leclerc.
I am sure Leclerc is going to the future World Champion!!

[myavu]

I am the only one who feel that there was nothing special about CL in this win. He just had a faster car in straights when Mercs were just sitting ducks behind.

CL's tactics was questionable, one for elbowing and other for moving around in braking zones. But okay he had received the yellow card. So no complaint there.

But what about cutting the chicane? How can he still leading after doing that? It was clear that the administration want a Ferrari win at least this time around after a long long time.

I am eager to watch when the roles are reversed. CL chasing down LH.

If CL can repeat the same kind of victory in Singapore I will say his win is special.

But Kudos to him for finally breaking the Ferrai winning drought in Monza

Cheers!

[mjk24]

There were a couple of questionable moves by Leclerc like moving under braking & not leaving a car's width on track. Had Lewis not handled it as well as he did, it would've ended a lot uglier for the both of them.

But I guess the Tifosi effect came into play here as stated by Toto - "Can you imagine if the stewards had done a 5-second penalty? You would need a police escort to leave the circuit.”
Could consider this as redemption for Bahrain.

Nonetheless, that was a brilliant drive from Leclerc. A 21 year old holding off a charging 5 time champion in a beastly Merc, that too only in his second season in F1. Definitely my driver of the day.

[ferrarirules]

What a race for a Ferrari fan!! Ended the Ferrari 9 year win drought at Monza. Brilliant defense by Lelerc!!!

Hamilton mounted a lethal attack and was almost successful. But when it came Bottas's turn. He fell flat with those two critical mistakes. And Toto's expression said it all. He is a good driver but he is not championship material and i think that is why he is in the team along side Lewis.

And for Vettel, lesser said is enough. This is second race in the row, he has been way off his team mates pace and resolve to win. He really needs to get his head in the right space. Ferrari lost 12 points at minimum yesterday just because of his blunder.

Finally for Verstappen, he found himself in another first lap crash compromising his race. He needs to learn to be away from such incidents. Albon is racier than Gasly. I think he is a better fit in Redbull.

Originally Posted by GTO

Question: At this stage in the championship, will biased Ferrari now support LeClerc? Will it now give team orders to Vettel? Just 7 races left!

I think they should give Leclerc preference now. He has a sizeable 13 points lead with 7 races to go

[Mohan Mathew A]

A cracker of a race. Leclerc showed that he is made of stern stuff by the way he absorbed the relentless pressure from Mercedes. It was a near perfect drive barring that one small mistake. BRAVO!

Vettel is seriously breaking apart. What he did after the self inflicted spin was plain stupidity.

It feels good to know that finally Mercedes has some serious and sustained competition

[FURY_44]

Boy o Boy !!! Whoever said this is going to be the same old boring F1 season. Amen to them.

Formula 1 is alive and hittin' it out the park, with the last 4 races giving us edge of the seat thriller's which F1 was all about. Being a HAM fan I am not disappointed because he didn't win or because he made the mistake and lost P2. I was excited seeing him mount relentless pressure on LEC lap after lap after lap (LEC did crack eventually).

When people were saying HAM has won championships cause of the car, what a way to prove them wrong yesterday. I mean BOT in an equivalent car couldn't even hold the 1 sec gap for more than a lap and HAM found a way to keep his Merc in the rear view mirrors of LEC for almost 3/4th of the race, that shows what a champion material he is. Heck, he even shredded his medium tyres in the process.

Out of all this I can say that Formula 1 & it's audience are the winners here. HAM has now got a competitor within Ferrari and LEC and we all know how HAM loves to excel in pressure situations. GAME ON !!!

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by GTO

Question: At this stage in the championship, will biased Ferrari now support LeClerc? Will it now give team orders to Vettel? Just 7 races left!

Certainly a possibility but both the championships are out of reach of Ferrari.
Hamilton is more than 4 wins away from LeClerc.
In constructors, Redbull with practically one competitive car for majority of races are closer to Ferrari than Ferrari are to Mercedes.

Ferrari's focus will be to protect second place in constructors and try to take second in WDC away from Bottas. Not sure if the latter is that important.

But make no mistake, if Vettel does lose support from the team, it will be a hard fall from grace for him. We all know what Kimi (in his first stint) and Alonso had to deal with once the team didn't want them anymore.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by FURY_44

Out of all this I can say that Formula 1 & it's audience are the winners here. HAM has now got a competitor within Ferrari and LEC and we all know how HAM loves to excel in pressure situations. GAME ON !!!

10 years ago we were saying the same praises about HAM. Now we say the same about LEC. It is up to LEC to bear the pressure. Remember HAM came a top contender on his debut and won his WDC during his second season if I am right (by a fluke!), however, he then made a lot of mistakes and crashed out a lot under pressure and misplaced aggression. After a couple of seasons with Mercedes, he sorted that out.

Verstappen seemed to follow a similar pattern especially in the crashing but seems to have comes out of that and is maturing.

Assuming the LEC moves straight into a strong consistent driver, we will see a great 3 way fight over the next two seasons (I don't see Hamilton staying on too long and will quit while ahead!)