Race Report: Leclerc gives Ferrari the win at Italian GP

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a crafty win at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix ahead of both McLaren’s of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. After Saturday, I thought my pick of Charles for the win in my Fantasy GP was a fool’s errand but both Ferrari and Charles proved me wrong, they had a trick up their sleeve on Sunday.

Win

A big win for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc who rolled the dice on a 1-stopper and made it work against the faster McLaren’s. At first, it looked as if Carlos Sainz might be best positioned to make the 1-stopper work but Charles managed his tires perfectly to also make a 1-stopper work. There was little doubt the McLaren’s were the quicker cars but Ferrari brought upgrades for Monza and perhaps their achilles heel of a year ago—tire sympathy—may be their secret weapon in 2025 as they are only 39 points out of the constructor’s championship lead.

Despite coming in 2nd and 3rd, it’s still a win for McLaren who surged to just 8 points away from Red Bull in the Constructor’s Championship. I’m not sure either McLaren really had the tire performance to make a 1-stopper work due to their front tire degradation rate but the more pressing issue is the intra-team battle causing Lando Norris to bleed points in the Driver’s Championship. The team didn’t get their strategy wrong, they just couldn’t manage a 1-stopper and Ferrari could. Oscar also was driving a terrific race.

A win for Williams and Alex Albon with a very respectable P9 and a very impressive debut race for Franco Colapinto in P12. The team do well in low-drag trim and Alex made the most of it on Sunday.

Fail

A fail for Red Bull who seemed a bit stumped with their waning performance of late and it was certainly exposed at Monza. Although Sergio Perez did have a better race finishing in P8, Max Verstappen is out of his element finishing in P6. The team also are now clinging to just an 8-point lead in the Constructor’s Championship. At this rate, Red Bull are likely to lose the Constructor’s Championship and Max is also at risk if they can’t stave off the performance deficit.

A fail for Mercedes who just couldn’t get their complete package working this weekend. Lewis and George both drove a good recovery race with George having a damaged front wing on lap 1 and Lewis trying to come back from a poor qualifying performance. There is every hint that the pace is there but tire wear rates and stringing together all three sectors was tough this weekend in Italy.

It’s unfortunate that Haas F1 teammates Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg got penalties because I think they were relatively competitive and potential top 10 contenders. Kevin is now being banned from Baku as he has reached his points limit and one expects Ollie Bearman will find that welcoming news.

WTH

I’ll have to read the post-race comments from Aston Martin but I’m not sure how Lance Stroll ended up last.

The good news for Sauber is that they weren’t last.

Yuki Tsunoda had a DNF but I am also not sure what troubles Daniel Ricciardo had. One presumes it was tire wear related but I’ll have to read his comments post-race.

Equally, not sure Alpine had much hope at Monza but they just looked stumped for pace and although there were a few moments that they looked competitive. Also, all the rumors of ditching their engine can’t be helping this team or its morale.

Pirelli Report:

“A really exciting race followed by an amazing show from the fans. The enthusiasm of the Monza crowd is incredible and contagious, and really gives one goosebumps. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, as winning this Grand Prix must be an incredible feeling for them.

“On the technical front, this was a Grand Prix that had it all: battles on track between the drivers with some spectacular overtaking moves, such as Piastri’s on Norris and a strategic confrontation between those who had opted to stop twice and those on a one-stop.

 “We said prior to the event that the one-stop would be the quickest and that proved to be correct. The fact that nearly all the teams had kept two sets of Hards for the race gave them the flexibility to go with different scenarios if necessary. One should keep in mind that no one had sufficient data to fully evaluate the C3 performance on the completely new track surface.

“Management of graining was key and it was probably affected by the track evolution. Initial analysis of the data and the visual checks of the tyres at the end of each stint showed that graining was very significant in the first part of the race, especially on the front left, but less so on the left rear, with both the Hard and Medium, while in the following stints the phenomenon was less present. A vital factor therefore was the drivers’ feeling during the race and their ability to manage the tyres, especially for those who stuck with the strategy they had opted for at the start, namely the one-stop.”

Italian GP Results: