SUNDAY’S Italian Grand Prix in Monza brought Max Verstappen his 11th victory of the 2022 Formula One World Championship, raising his title advantage to 116pts over closest rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. He could potentially claim this year’s title at the next race in Singapore.
Despite starting the race from 7th place on the grid – the result of a 5-place penalty incurred for using a new engine – Verstappen quickly moved through the field. He was 4th by the end of lap 1 and overtook Mercedes’ George Russell on lap 5 to hold 2nd place.
When Leclerc made a pit stop on lap 12 Verstappen moved into the lead, and although he lost it for eight laps following his own first pit stop, he was soon back in front. He remained in control until the race end. With Leclerc 2nd and Russell 3rd it was left to their Ferrari and Mercedes team mates Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to finish 4th and 5th, both having started towards the back of the grid due to penalties.
The race finished under a Safety Car following the retirement of Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren, much to the disappointment of the capacity crowd.
“This weekend was a good example of how this season has worked out – Charles qualifying on pole position but Max winning the race,” said Mika Hakkinen. “Charles’s Ferrari is quick, in fact when you think that he has taken 8 pole positions – half the races – he really can get the performance out of it over one lap. Max has only been on pole four times, but his race pace is just too quick and consistent, the car has such good straight line speed and he has no problem overtaking. We saw that in Belgium where he won from 14th on the grid, and here in Monza he was able to do it from 7th – and make it look easy.”
“As a driver you really want to have a quick race car, not a one-lap car. I think Ferrari did a great job with Charles, they tried a different pit stop strategy to Red Bull, but Max just kept coming. This is his fifth race win in a row, he has won every Grand Prix since France, and Red Bull have really pulled ahead. I expect he will be celebrating his second World Championship in Singapore or Japan in early October unless there’s an incident of reliability issue.”
Ferrari’s home race was marked by an interview in Italy’s La Gazette dello Sport with the company’s Chairman, John Elkann, in which he admitted the team really need to improve in every area, “…that goes for the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers and obviously, the entire management, including the Team Principal.”
“Ferrari has always had a lot of pressure,” said Mika Hakkinen, “and it is something unique to them. Of course at McLaren we felt the pressure of competing to win, trying our best, not being satisfied if we were not winning, but Ferrari has always had this additional pressure of being a kind of national team.”
Win or lose, Monza is red ❤️#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/uCxbPVSMcO
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2022
“There is always the feeling of extra pressure, and this cannot be easy on the management or drivers who need to keep working hard, pushing together and making sure they do not start to blame each other when things go wrong. It’s interesting to see the comments of the Ferrari Chairman, especially in public, as that adds more pressure on the team. I think this season has been difficult because they started with a quick car, race wins and a lot of confidence, but Red Bull have operated so efficiently, making so few mistakes and improving the car.”
Finishing 9th in the Italian Grand Prix was Dutch driver Nick De Vries, test driver for Mercedes. A former Formula 2 Champion and Formula E World Champion, he was invited to replace Williams driver Alex Albon after he contracted appendicitis. De Vries had driven the Aston Martin in first practice, but stepped into the Williams for third practice, qualified 8th and scored two World Championship points.
“I thought this was a great performance because it’s never easy to jump into another car, especially in the middle of a race weekend,” said Mika Hakkinen. “To make his debut in this way, driving for two teams in one weekend, was just brilliant. We expected him to drop back during the race because the Williams is not that competitive, but he did a really good job, avoided mistakes and delivered a really solid result. Suddenly the Netherlands has two F1 drivers really delivering!”
Regarding the race finish, Mika said, “It was very disappointing for the fans and television viewers to see the race finish behind a Safety Car. However, the FIA must put safety first and the marshals recovering Daniel Ricciardo’s car needed to be protected, so that was the most important thing. It would be great to find ways to avoid this kind of result in future, but everything has to be done in a way that achieves the balance between entertaining racing and ensuring the safety of everyone involved. Sometimes these decisions are very difficult, but I can understand the disappointment of losing those final laps behind a Safety Car.”
