[am1m]

What is with Ferrari?!

Am a huge fan, though I don't watch F1 races anymore, and even when they were on the decline they usually pulled out all the stops to ensure a great performance at their home races. Looks like they can't even do that any more.

What has led to the decline of the team? I guess they still have their budget and pulling power, so what has changed so drastically? Haven't been following F1 apart from the next day's news reports, so am out of sync.

Always loved the Iceman, great to hear he had a good race. Still remains the last driver to win a championship for my beloved team. Hope the wait for the next one isin't as long as it was between Scheckter and Schumacher!

[myavu]

Originally Posted by wrongturn

.

Hamilton going to the stewards personally to argue on the given penalty was yet again a profound display of arrogance.

Hamilton went to stewards not to argue. He want to review the video footage which was not with the team at that point of time. The incident which happened was a rare one. He put up a concern about why the Haas was not pushed back to the exit road just behind the stalled car and what was the need to push the car all the way to pits. From previous posts I knew that you are not a Hamilton nor Mec fan. But please check the facts before posting. After his own mistake he accepted it and drove like a champion to the 7th from close to half a minute back.

[F1-Addict]

I have read all the posts. And more or less every F1 lover here has already said the main things.

But still I have to say it again - "WHAT A RACE!!!!!"

After so long have actually enjoyed a race that I went back online and saw a few portions again.

Felt good to hear the Italian National anthem in Monza - at least Ferrari ensured we had a good race (thanks to LeClerc's crash ) But glad he walked away from that one without any injury.

The final laps as Sainz was shaving off milliseconds to catch up to Gasly was really awesome. Just wished there were a couple of laps more and that would have been the icing on the cake.

Finally was also so happy that both the Williams cars finished the race. Perfect send off to the Williams family - Thank you for your contribution to Formula 1. Another passion lead family team gone.

[myavu]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

That's why all teams are signing the Concorde agreement for next year where they have a budget cap of $145million across the board for an even playing field.

Then there's the new technical regulations that ban DAS, limit the number of upgrades to the car in a race season.

Exactly. We will wait for that season when so called TDs and Regs bunch the cars together (Hope so. History says one team will always master a regulation and steer clear) Till then let the credit be with the team who mastered the hybrid era. Races like yesterday's will be there always. Even mighty team and driver like Merc and LH makes mistakes and others can grab the opportunity. I will never say let us send the current Mercs, yesteryear's Bulls and Ferrari back of the grid to have some fun.

[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Credit goes to Mercedes where it is due but that doesn't change the fact that the race was super entertaining without them in the foray. I agree Mercedes cars are superior causing this skew but this skew is what F1 is trying to get rid off themselves.

That's why all teams are signing the Concorde agreement for next year where they have a budget cap of $145million across the board for an even playing field.

Then there's the new technical regulations that ban DAS, limit the number of upgrades to the car in a race season.

Its true Mercedes is superior but at the same time its also true that Redbull and especially Ferrari are inferior making the gap more glaring (with good enough budgets). And it's not only the performance of the Car its the whole team Drivers, reliability, strategy etc. Mercedes have been spot on with strategy.

With F1, every decisions they take to make the cars more competitive the worst it is getting, Starting from stop on refueling, only one brand of tires, making team orders legal etc.

We all want entertainment in a race and that is what brings in the money. If it's just for entertainment FIA should make identical cars and give it to the teams so that all cars are same except the branding. But that will not be F1.

The failure of other teams to match Mercedes is making the sport boring not the other way round. It would be easier for FIA if Mercedes (or any other leading brand) can be asked to make their cars inferior to ensure entertainment.

[aarnav_b]

What a mad mad race it was !
I just hope next year's ferrari returns to the SF90 roots, because if not then Sainz would have just made a huge mistake joining the team next season. And vettel can't seem to catch a break. Feel so sad for him, doesn't deserve this.
Pierre and Hamilton drivers of the day for sure.

[prasathlr]

Originally Posted by am1m

What is with Ferrari?!

Am a huge fan, though I don't watch F1 races anymore, and even when they were on the decline they usually pulled out all the stops to ensure a great performance at their home races. Looks like they can't even do that any more.

What has led to the decline of the team? I guess they still have their budget and pulling power, so what has changed so drastically? Haven't been following F1 apart from the next day's news reports, so am out of sync.

Ferrari apparently found a loophole to exploit last year where they could burn extra oil to boost their engine performance. Throughout 2019, their car was wicked fast in the straights. The rival teams noticed this in Monza last year when Leclerc won here. After a couple of races they lodged a complaint with FIA. FIA added additional sensors to observe the fuel flow or something like that and ever since then Ferrari lost a good chunk of engine performance. FIA and Ferrari reached a closed room deal and Ferrari was not penalized. No one knows what happened in that meeting. Ferrari says it can't release the details of the deal because of the sensitive IP. Other team fans claim that Ferrari cheated and got away because they are Ferrari.

Ferrari had designed the 2019 car around that powerful engine but wrt aerodynamics it was a high drag car for some reason. Ferrari could challenge Merc in 2019 because of the engine but in 2020 the engine is really bad. The commentators mentioned that Ferrari is 50BHP down compared to other cars and to make things worse this car has high drag making this one of the worst Ferrari car designed in the recent times.

Ferrari has mentioned that they won't be competitive for 2020 and 2021 years. Things might be different in 2022 when the new regulations kick in.

[Johnnny]

Absolute delight to watch! My heart goes to Gasly who did a splendid job in holding his pace and race who had a rollercoaster career in the past 12 months.
He never wanted to leave the podium stand, such was his emotions.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Kimi is in a slow car but boy can he drive. He got passed by many cars and fought hard but notice from the several cars that passed him there was respect and clean driving. Nobody touched. They respected him and he did the same. Shows what an awesome driver he still is.

Glad you noticed that and even the commentators pointed that when fellow drivers passed through him. Clean Race! if you can remember, the same happened in the year 2018 too with Hamilton when he passed the finn to take over the podium.

But it was hard for his fans like me when the drivers overtook him in each lap.

God only knew when we can see him next in podium stands! Counting on that,..

Originally Posted by prasathlr

Ferrari has mentioned that they won't be competitive for 2020 and 2021 years. Things might be different in 2022 when the new regulations kick in.

That's too kiddish to say from a strong team who has a history.. Man, one has to feel for Sainz badly. He should have stayed with McLaren with Merc engine lined up in the coming year.

[Yusha]

Originally Posted by wrongturn

What was wrong with the Mercedes Bottas was driving?

Priorities.

Backfired on them, but what a tremendous race. Norris drove brilliantly to defend his position from the handicapped Mercedes of Bottas. Though it was sad to see Max retire, his second of the season. He would have been closer to Hamilton if not for those. I've been praying to see Lewis retire or worse for atleast 3 races so Max & Bottas can close up on him. Today was one of those races but unfortunately neither Bottas nor Max could capitalise on the opportunity.

Hamilton going to the stewards personally to argue on the given penalty was yet again a profound display of arrogance.

There was nothing wrong with Bottas's car. He just flubbed the start and admitted it himself.

And Hamilton visiting the Stewards is not "arrogance" but his wish to understand what had happened with the pit entry. The Stewards showed him his onboard and Hamilton accepted his mistake gracefully and carried on with the race. Started second last but ended the race in 7th, just 2 positions behind Bottas.

[prasathlr]

Originally Posted by Johnnny

That's too kiddish to say from a strong team who has a history.. Man, one has to feel for Sainz badly. He should have stayed with McLaren with Merc engine lined up in the coming year.

Well, Ferrari was unlucky because they froze the development of the 2019 car so that they could concentrate on 2021 regulations. But unfortunately, due to Covid-19, FIA decided to postpone the 2021 regulations to 2022.

Now it makes no sense to invest money and resources into a car only for one year in 2021. Rather, it makes sense that they invest all their resources into the 2021 regulation so that they can finally end the Mercedes domination. Historically, after every regulation change there was a new champion. Hopefully, Merc domination ends in 2021 and we get to see many more exciting races like Monza 2020.

[SilentEngine]

Driver of the day - Kevin Magnussen
Gasly must send him a thank you note!

Gasly's win was setup by the lucky timing of pitlane closing, but after that he drove like a winner to fully deserve it. Well done!

Sainz - wonder what's going on in his mind now? Leaving a potential race winning car to go to a team that's struggling to keep Williams/Haas/Alfa Romeo behind!

Kimi Raikkonen - was great to seem him running higher up the order. He was quite racy at the restart. I was hoping somehow he would at least finish in the points, but looks like tyres gave up soon. He was running on softs after the restart because the team didn't have any fresh sets of mediums or hards for him.

[mayankk]

You can be happy for Gasly's win, but you'll never ever be as happy with anything in your life as this French commentator was for the top step for Gasly.

https://www.facebook.com/56866540995...3744628115844/

[F1 Freak]

Just let me say this first, I did not expect this from today's race, nobody did. From the past races, it was crystal clear that Black Arrows are extremely dominant. Monza is known as the "The paradise of speed".So what people expected was one more boring race with another 1-2 for Mercedes.

But as they say, Formula 1 is unpredictable. So what we got was a complete opposite of a boring race, a race so good that some state it to be the "Best Race of Turbo-Hybrid Era".

The start itself was amazing. Hamilton pulled away cleanly into the lead while his teammate Bottas had a bit of trouble which he always has. This resulted in both the Mclarens pulling cleanly into the 2nd and 3rd. After some time he went down to 6th after Ricciardo and Perez overtook him.

Vettel had a brake failure resulting in his DNF and after that KMAG had issues with his car which resulted in a safety car. Everybody took advantage of this and pitted, but Ham and Giovvinazi were given a 10s stop and go penalty as they entered the pit lane when it was closed. This penalty of Ham was one of the key factors in Mercedes not even being on the podium.

After this something happened that changed the whole race. Leclerc lost his rear while exiting Parabolica, crashing into the tyre barriers. This resulted in the race being red-flagged which along with Hamilton's penalty, changed the whole race.

When the race was resumed and Ham was done with the penalty ,Gasly was in the lead, followed by Mclaren of Sainz and Racing Point(Pink Mercedes) of Stroll. This order remained till the end resulting in the first win of Pierre Gasly, a first for a french driver after Olivier Panis in 1996 Monaco GP. In the last few laps, Sainz gave it his all but unfortunately couldn't overtake Gasly. Still, he took his second podium, an event which was common for all 3 drivers.

Hamilton along with his car drove an incredible recovery drive which led him from being last on the grid after his penalty to finishing 7th.

Pierre Gasly really deserved the win after his struggles with RBR, and he got it. Although cant stop feeling sad for Sainz as he won't be getting any podiums in Ferrari anytime soon.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by am1m

What is with Ferrari?!

The top three constructors right now have a nice symmetry. You have a German team with an Austrian team principal, an Austrian team with an English team principal and an English team with a German team principal. These teams get the best person for the job regardless of where they're from. When did Ferrari last have a team boss from outside Italy?

Incidentally, back in the day, there was similar pressure about hiring an Indian driver when Vijay Mallya established the Force India team. The only choice was Karthikeyan and he simply wasn't quick enough. Whatever you think of Mallya, he was smart enough to not fall for patriotic nonsense and instead hired the best drivers, engineers and management within the team's budget. It paid off big time - Force India were probably the best performers on the grid on a per dollar basis during their tenure - and the same team still punches above its weight as Racing Point.

There are very good Italian F1 engineers and managers e.g. Andrea Stella at McLaren. But if Ferrari want to succeed, they need to get the top people regardless of where they're from.

[drmohitg]

What a race. The best race so far of the whole season. Sadly, I missed the second part from the point of restart onwards. Hotstar only allows you to watch the highlights later on and not the whole race. Any place where I can catch a replay of the race? I can only manage to find highlights.