Mamma mia indeed, Charles Leclerc pulled off an unexpected victory on Ferrari’s home track Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix.
As the team opted for a one-stop pit strategy, Leclerc managed his tires well enough to fend off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to the checkered flag and send the Ferrari faithful into a frenzy.
It could have backfired as other drivers experienced tire graining and struggled for grip under the blistering hot track temperatures, but Leclerc never faded and crossed the line 2.664 seconds ahead of Piastri.
All part of the plan as Ferrari brought significant upgrades for their cars to the Monza circuit in hopes of delivering a strong result in front of the “tifosi.”
Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz qualified fourth and fifth, respectively, although they were only about a tenth of a second off of Norris, who qualified on pole position alongside Piastri to lock out the front row for McLaren.
Leclerc moved up to third early as Mercedes driver George Russell took a detour down the escape route on the first turn, and he followed Piastri up into second when the McLaren driver slipped past his teammate.
It still looked like a McLaren 1-2 was in play though, as Norris pitted early on lap 15 and the undercut attempt to reclaim second worked. Ferrari still called Leclerc to the pits ahead of schedule on the following lap but couldn’t cover McLaren’s move. Leclerc returned to the track behind Norris, and the Monegasque driver wondered what they were doing.
“What was that? Why did we pit if we are undercut?” Leclerc asked over the team radio.
But as other teams like McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull committed to a second pit stop, Leclerc and Sainz stayed out until the end.
It was a bold strategy and it paid off for them.
Leclerc earned his second win of the season — following his home victory at the Monaco Grand Prix in May — and his third consecutive podium finish.
Meanwhile, birthday boy Sainz just missed out on the podium as the now 30-year-old came in fourth.
While McLaren’s pursuit of Red Bull for the constructors’ championship has garnered all of the attention, Ferrari is in the fight, too, with the team now just 39 points back for the lead.
PAPAYA DOESN’T RULE
Norris started a race in pole position for the seventh time, and for the seventh time, he wasn’t leading after the opening lap. Unlike last week where he bounced back big time to win the Dutch Grand Prix by a commanding 22.896 seconds, Norris had to settle for third place Sunday.
McLaren was in a simply lovely position with Norris and Piastri starting 1-2, but “Papaya rules” and not team orders were in play, allowing the drivers to settle things on the track themselves.
That was quite obvious early when Piastri slingshot ahead of Norris on the opening lap, which also opened the door for Leclerc to make a move, dropping the pole-sitter from first to third in an instant. It was a risky move from Piastri, one that could have had dangerous consequences if they had collided, and an ominous sign that a 1-2 finish would not come to fruition.
Although Norris made his first pit stop early and successfully undercut Leclerc, the Papaya pair pushed each other as they duelled for the fastest lap time during their second stints. One has to wonder how much that contributed to wearing out their tires faster, as Norris experienced graining and went off the track before making his second pit stop.
Even when it was clear Piastri wasn’t going to catch Leclerc, McLaren didn’t order him to switch and aid Norris’ quest to close the gap to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.
Norris, who set the fastest lap at the end for the bonus point, is now 62 points back of Verstappen in the standings. But more importantly for McLaren, the team is only eight points back of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
Azerbaijan and Singapore are next on the schedule — two tight and tricky street circuits where qualifying is key — and could see a swing in the standings.
GET THE BALANCE RIGHT
Verstappen’s win drought has now reached six GPs — still his longest slump since 2020 — as he finished in sixth place and stuck in a Mercedes sandwich between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Teammate Sergio Perez came in eighth as Red Bull’s woes reach a critical point, if they haven’t already.
The balance has been off for the triple world champion Verstappen, who dipped into the dirt during qualifying due to understeer issues and had another run into the gravel during Sunday’s race. A slow second pit stop didn’t help matters either.
Verstappen also alluded to an engine problem during his post-race interview with formula1.com.
“It doesn’t help that you can’t run full power for most of the race with the engine because we had an issue,” Verstappen said. “So yeah, all in all, a pretty bad race. [The engine issue] is really bad at the moment and, before Baku, we have a lot of work to do to basically change the whole car.”
Even Red Bull is at a loss for what’s gone wrong as team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports after qualifying “there’s something that’s fundamentally happening that we’re not on top of.”
Yikes.
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence Red Bull’s dip in performance has come since aerodynamics extraordinaire Adrian Newey stepped back from the team, but let’s not forget they also lost chief engineering officer Rob Marshall to McLaren at the start of the year.
Red Bull is trying, even reverting on upgrades as the team did with the car floor during the Dutch GP, but it’s only going to get worse before it gets any better until a diagnosis is found.
HAAS OF PAIN
Kevin Magnussen’s penalties have finally caught up to him. Although Magnussen finished 10th, the Haas driver picked up more penalty points than championship points for causing a collision with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
That will force Magnussen to miss the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a fortnight as he received an automatic one-race ban for accumulating 12 penalty points over a 12-month period.
Magnussen’s loss could be Ollie Bearman’s gain as Haas’ reserve driver is expected to get the callup. The 19-year-old British driver, who is also set to replace Magnussen full-time next season, already made his F1 debut at the Saudi Arabian GP in March subbing for Sainz. Bearman finished seventh there to earn six points — as many as Magnussen has scored all season — and didn’t incur any penalty points for what it’s worth.
COLAPINTO’S FINE DEBUT
Franco Colapinto made his first-ever F1 start after Williams dropped Logan Sargeant earlier in the week. The timing of Sargeant’s sacking was a little odd — during back-to-back race weekends and just one week after the summer break — but his crash during practice at the Dutch GP was likely the final straw and a costly one to fix to boot.
Sargeant was already on the way out with Sainz set to replace him next season, so why not let one of their academy drivers, someone you think has a future with the team, get some valuable seat time during the remainder of the year?
Colapinto qualified 18th and improved to finish 12th — or better than all but one of Sargeant’s outings this year. Although that netted zero points, Colapinto avoided any incidents for a solid start to his F1 career.
