[Scarlet_Rider]

Formula 1 is back to the Temple of Speed. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Monza, one of Formula 1's historic, storied venues.

Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix in the World Championship era has been held at Monza except in 1980, when it was held at Imola.

Race Time: 18:30 - 20:30 IST






Starting Grid






Details of the Monza track from Formula1.com

When was the track built?
Constructed in just 110 days in 1922, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza was the world’s third purpose-built race track, coming after Brooklands in the UK and Indianapolis in the US. Like those two tracks, the original circuit featured a daunting series of banked curves, as well as much of the ‘outfield’ section that’s still in use today.

When was its first Grand Prix?
Monza opened its doors on September 3 1922, just a week before it hosted that year’s Italian Grand Prix. It was then part of the original Formula 1 calendar in 1950, and has held the Italian Grand Prix every year bar one since.

What’s the circuit like?
Rapido! Formula 1’s fastest ever lap was set at Monza – Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya’s 260.6km/h effort during practice for the 2004 Grand Prix – which should give you some idea of the nature of the track the locals call ‘La Pista Magica’. Cars are on full throttle for 80% of the lap, and hit their Vmax on the circuit’s 1.1km start/finish straight. From there, they roar off into the historic park section, where a series of big stops into tight chicanes give the brakes a good workout.

Why go?
The parkland setting of Monza, located just to the north east of Italy’s fashion capital Milan, makes for a relaxed, leafy setting for a Grand Prix, while the preserved Monza banking – spot it in the background as the cars exit the Parabolica, as well as on the flyover bridge they pass under en route to the Variante Ascari – leaves you in no doubt that you’re in the presence of a very special race track.

Where is the best place to watch?
Aim for the grandstand at the Variante del Rettifilo to witness the awesome spectacle of cars braking from around 350km/h to just 70km/h before negotiating the tight chicane. This is also one of the track’s best overtaking spots, as well as a magnet for first-lap tussles.

Penalties

Verstappen - Five-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Ocon - Five-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Perez - 10-place grid penalty for power unit component change
Bottas - 15-place grid penalty due to multiple power unit component changes
Magnussen - 15-place grid penalty due to multiple power unit component changes
Schumacher - 15-place grid penalty due to power unit component and gearbox changes
Hamilton - Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes
Sainz - Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes (incurred twice), 10-place grid penalty for gearbox component changes
Tsunoda - Start at back of grid due to multiple power unit component changes, 10-place grid penalty for collecting five reprimands, three-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags

Sources:
https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2...y/Circuit.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...QInT2E6vH.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Grand_Prix
https://www.racefans.net/2022/09/10/...and-prix-grid/

[Chetan_Rao]

The special livery touches this weekend made me think I wouldn't mind Ferrari switching to a Giallo Modena base with tasteful black + red highlights color palette some year, with prominent Ferrari lettering on the engine cover and wings. A throwback to their racing origins.

[ninjatalli]

A few points to remember

1. Last year Ricciardo and Norris made it a Mclaren 1-2 thanks to the multiple incidents that happened on the race. This year they are #3 and #4 on the starting grid (last year it was #2 and #3) and it'll be interesting to see if luck is on their side again

2. One of the major incident was the one between Hamilton and Verstappen, which caused both of them to go out of the race immediately


Remember this?

3. Leclarc last year started on 5th and only made it till 4th, Inspite of two cars ahead of him crashing out. Even Bottas who started in 19th, made it ahead of him to 3rd position!


Any predictions on who's going to win? It's an open field to be honest.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

...
Any predictions on who's going to win? It's an open field to be honest.

Not really.

The Mclarens are starting 2nd row but have neither pace nor are kinder on their tires to benefit from an offset. They'll be battling Alpine (Alonso) and Alpha Tauri (Gasly) for maybe P3. Merc have been good on long run pace this season but haven't made an impression at Monza at all in practice, curious if raceday is different. I'd love Danny Ric to somehow pull something out of the hat, the guy is a fantastic racer and needs a pick-me-up to put himself in contention for a seat next season.

If Leclerc and Verstappen have clean first laps (far from a given), hard to see that not being the P1 battle eventually.

[ninjatalli]

Very interesting race with so many changes across the grid. To me the driver of the race was Carlos Sainz with his excellent drive from the end to P4. But for me, the race had a disappointing end - the stewards had two choices - a safety car or a red flag, followed by a restart. If they had opted the latter, we would have seen atleast a 2 lap race with everyone on the tires they have; which would have been beneficial to Leclerc. But more important, it would have given a fighting chance to all to win the race.

As Michael Masi (un)famously said "Toto, its called a motor race" for a similar situation a year ago. As someone who found the race ending behind a safety car a bit boring, I would have enjoyed a fight to the finish in the last two laps.

Clearly, the Italian fans on the ground made their views quite clear.

[Mat095]

Finished under a safety car, there is one more race I can think of that should’ve finished under a safety car!

It is sad that FIA still doesn’t have an SOP on what to do if there is a safety car in the last laps, a red flag and a standing start should be the best practice, don’t know when FIA would realise this.

Coming to the drivers, Sainz drove exceptionally today and had some serious pace. We’ll see Verstappen lifting his second WDC in Singapore, a very well deserved win this time around. Also, it would be really interesting to see the fight for 2nd position in driver’s championship with only few points separating Leclerc, Perez & Russel and only 6 races remaining.

P.S: Congrats to Jehan Daruvala on his F2 win today!

[libranof1987]

A race fought well by cars, drivers and strategy, until the closing stages. While the Race Directors could / should have handled it differently (/ better), unlikely that the podium would have been any different.

Max's debut win at Monza now puts him one race away from mathematically winning the World Championship.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

the race had a disappointing end

Originally Posted by Mat095

It is sad that FIA still doesn’t have an SOP on what to do if there is a safety car in the last laps, a red flag and a standing start should be the best practice, don’t know when FIA would realise this.

I guess they (or anyone) didn't realize it would be this complicated given the locked gearbox. Had the car been movable, would have taken less than a lap to clear the track.

[skarface]

It seemed like business as usual for Redbull and Max. Flawless execution by them.
Nick de Vries was very impressive for me today. Latifi should be ousted next year especially when there are so many deserving drivers for an F1 seat.

[turbowhistle]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

But for me, the race had a disappointing end - the stewards had two choices - a safety car or a red flag, followed by a restart. If they had opted the latter, we would have seen atleast a 2 lap race with everyone on the tires they have; which would have been beneficial to Leclerc.

I was at Monza today attending the race, the booing was unfortunate but inevitable. It was clear that Max would have won this no matter what. I think the confusion came from Russell being behind the safety car, it took a lot of time to group the cars post that and that ate into laps. DOtD was Sainz but I guess Nyk was also pretty deserving. Good recovery drive from Sainz, LH and Perez. Very sad for Danny, Gasly was on him the whole race and in the end it went down like this.

Good race overall but the end was anticlimactic. People in stands cheered big time for Ferrari boys and DeVries (Latiffi too but for other reasons )

[Actuator]

Max and his Red Bull look really dialled-in this season! They are leaps and bounds ahead of the field. It's a shame that Ferrari have strategically blundered away any chance of resisting Verstappen's hegemony by repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot!

Bottas showed promise in his Alfa Romeo by consistent Q3 showings earlier in the season but his performance has also fallen off the cliff and the DNFs haven't helped either!

Russell is having such a great season! Outperforming an illustrious teammate one race weekend after the other is no mean feat.

De Vries was a revelation; Him being stranded in the Parc Ferme at the end, not being able to even lift himself up was a testament of his dedication on his debut.

Also, elated for Jehan Daruvala's triumph in F2; cannot wait for him to drive in Formula 1!

[Revvatron]

The only silver lining for a me(a Ferrari fan) is that they didn't blunder strategically. They could have easily thrown away the podium finish based on their recent strategy calls
On the other hand it was nice to see them being little aggresive in terms of strategy to counter redbull. Agreed it didn't payoff but atleast it was nice to see them trying something instead of just reacting to other team's strategies

[venkyhere]

The biggest "wow" moment for me in the race was a 13 lap 'window' from lap34 to lap47.

Lap 34 :
- Max was on 9 lap old mediums
- LeClerc emerged P2 from the pits with brand new softs, chasing P1 Max
- The 'hunt' was on, 18.5 seconds to catchup with a tyre offset, 19 laps remaining in the race.
- By the time LeClerc had warmed up his tyres (half a lap or so), the number had risen to 19.xx
- The gap went to 20.xx, stayed there for two laps before returning to 19.xx

Lap 42 :
- The gap drops below the original number from lap34, ie, drops below 18.5

Lap 38:
- The gap finally dropped below 19 seconds

Lap 47:
- Ricciardo DNF, yellow flag
- the gap was 16.8 seconds.

So with a tyre offset, LeClerc in that Ferrari 'hunted down' 1.7 seconds over 13 laps. What does that say ?
Max in that Redbull has so much more 'headroom' , that they can turn the wick up anytime, even with a tyre disadvantage, pass more blue flag cars than the chasing Ferrari, and still match the times that the LeClerc Ferrari was doing, with fresh softs, on the same fuel load. It didn't matter whether the race restarted on yellows or a red flag. Max on that Redbull was on brand new softs v/s LeClerc on 'new' scrubbed softs, after their stops under that final safety car. There was NO-WAY that Ferrari could finish P1 ahead of that Redbull, no matter what happened in that race, unless Max DNF-ed or unless his pit crew brought three tyres instead of four.

If there was a final nail in the coffin this was it. I now understand the bewilderment on LeClerc's face during the post race interviews. This 13 lap slice, was a psychological hammer blow.

[AutoConsultant]

De Vries was easily the highlight of the weekend! What a superb performance, jumping into the car on short notice and ending up in points with a back-of-the-midfield car. His hug with Verstappen and solid congratulatory handshake with Hamilton post race was so heartwarming!

Sainz was also quite strong throughout the weekend. Hope he manages to keep it up till the end of the season. Perez has just gone downhill since the early phase of this season.

Regarding the conclusion of the race, I feel this is not the way any racing fan would enjoy a race being concluded. The rules should be modified to give the race director some flexibility to end the race under the green flag without being unfair to any particular team. It was clear that they would have to get the crane to clear RIC’s car so they should have red-flagged the race. Cars going behind the safety car lap after lap does not benefit anyone.

[FuelInjector]

Checo and Carlos were the true heros in this race i feel.
Checo - Starting 13th, pitting quickly with brakes on fire, Pushed to 20th, needing to handle hards and delicate braking for almost 5 laps and then finishing 5th was masterclass.
Carlos - starting 18th, cutting across the field, runing on mediums for a long long time before confidently switching to softs and handling the car superbly, it was truly race craft after a long time.

Safety car or not, red flag/standing start whatever, i think Max was going to pick P1.
It was a shame Daniel had to lose out while he was showing his past brilliance and similar stuff for Norris. That pit stop in the end cost him dearly.

Lot of positions switches in the mid field with beautiful race craft and overtakes.


Alonso could have delivered a suprise and again a shame he had to get out. Same with Vettel and Stroll.

Lewis and George seem to be gaining because of other's misfortune.

So, with all these i feel it was a truly a high-octance mid-field race.

[Turbohead]

I feel for Latifi- he's getting roasted badly and rightly so. He's made all of his team mates look far better than him.

Nick De Vries is someone to watch out for honestly. He's scored points with Williams for heaven's sake which even Albon and Russell struggled with. Maybe the car was phenomenal last Sunday but he's a rising star for sure.