Showing posts with label Monza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monza. Show all posts
Monday, 1 June 2026
Saturday, 14 March 2026
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
BRINDLE AND BERNIE SPIT OVER MCLAREN'S MONZA TEAM ORDERS CALL
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| Bernie Ecclestone and Martin Brundle have different opinions on McLaren's team orders |
McLaren’s decision to use team orders at Monza was the “right thing” according to Martin Brundle, but Bernie Ecclestone says it sounds like the team “prefers a World Champion named Lando Norris”.
It has highlighted the divide in opinion, both inside and outside the Formula 1 paddock, in the wake of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Was McLaren’s team order fair to both drivers?
McLaren courted controversy at the Italian Grand Prix when the team ordered Oscar Piastri to give second place to Lando Norris after he lost it through a slow pit stop.
Running second and third behind Max Verstappen, Piastri was given the go-ahead to pit first after McLaren assured Norris, who was ahead of his teammate on the track and would therefore usually have priority, that he would not be undercut.
However, a 5.9s pit stop for the Briton meant he was.
Norris was stationary four seconds longer than his teammate, which meant he came out behind Piastri on the track with the Australian then told to cede the position.
“We pitted in this order for team reasons. Please let Lando past and then you are free to race,” said his race engineer Tom Stallard.
The championship leader briefly tried to make his case, arguing: “I mean, we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here.”
However, once he got the second request, he moved over for Norris, who went on to finish the race in second place, two seconds ahead of Piastri.
The call, though, irked not only Piastri’s fans and sections of the international media, but also paddock personalities with former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone crying foul.
“They talk about fairness all the time,” he complained to Blick, “But is it fair for Piastri if he is punished for a mistake made by the team? No.”
He went on to accuse the Woking team of favouring Norris in the championship fight.
“You slowly get the feeling that McLaren prefers a World Champion named Lando Norris,” continued the 94-year-old. “Mistakes such as missed pit stops or engine damage as well as suspension breaks have become rarer, but they are part of the sport.”
McLaren, though, has insisted it was a case of “principles” and “racing values”, team principal Andrea Stella saying: “We thought it was absolutely the right thing to go back to the situation, pre-existing at the pit stop, and then let the guys race.”
Former F1 driver turned commentator Brundle agrees that it was the only fair call to make given Norris wasn’t at fault for his slow pit stop.
“I believe that was the right thing to do all round, as happened in reverse in Hungary last year,” he wrote in his post-Monza column for Sky F1.
“If Norris had, for example, run long in his stop and scattered his mechanics, or it had simply been a slow stop, then that’s the way the cookie crumbles. But there were a number of aspects to this scenario including prior discussions and agreements.
“The cohesion of this team is what’s making it so dominant this season and both drivers are smart enough to realise that for both now and into the future.
“Don’t judge either of them for playing the team game, all the other teams on the grid would kill to have two great drivers working in tandem for the good of the team like this, while also racing the wheels off the cars and doing their best to beat each other.
“At least Piastri did gain the advantage of now being in Norris’ DRS rear wing open range, but Norris continued to have the pace.”
One person who knows all about intra-team championship battles and team orders is Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
Sitting on the fence in a situation where he says there is “no right and there is no wrong”, the Austrian warned McLaren that a dangerous precedent had been set.
Speaking with PlanetF1.com and other publications at Monza,” he said: “You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo. What if the team does another mistake and it’s not a pit stop, do you switch them around?
“But then equally, because of a team mistake, making a driver that is trying to catch up lose the points is not fair either.
“So I think we are going to get our response of whether that was right today towards the end of the season when it heats up.”
Piastri continues to lead the Drivers’ standings with Norris taking three points off his teammate in Italy to close the gap to 31 points.
- Michelle Foster
Monday, 8 September 2025
Saturday, 6 September 2025
PIERRE GASLY COMMITTED TO ALPINE FUTURE WITH NEW CONTRACT THROUGH 2028
Pierre Gasly has secured his Formula 1 future with Alpine, signing a new long-term contract that will keep him with the French manufacturer until the end of the 2028 season. The announcement came during the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza and marks a major step in Alpine’s bid to rebuild as the sport heads into its next regulatory era.
The 29-year-old joined Alpine ahead of the 2023 season after a long spell with the Red Bull family and has since emerged as a central figure in the team’s long-term project. In just over two seasons, Gasly has scored two podium finishes – at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix and the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix – and played a vital role in helping the team secure sixth place in the constructors’ standings last year.
Gasly’s previous deal was set to expire at the end of 2026, but both sides moved quickly to lock in an extension by two more years, underlining Alpine’s faith in his ability to lead them into the new regulations beginning in 2026.
Gasly admitted that the chance to continue racing with a French team was a source of pride and one of the driving factors in his decision to stay.
“I’m thrilled to commit my long-term future to Alpine,” Gasly said in a statement released by Alpine. “As a Frenchman, driving for a French car company makes me feel very proud.
“Since I joined in 2023, I have always felt this was the right place to be for the future. Flavio’s support and belief in me, Francois’ commitment to the Formula 1 project, as well as the people we have in Enstone made this a natural decision.
“I want to be here in years to come and deliver on our joint objective: to win races and world championships. We’re all in this together and I look forward to continuing this special story.”
Gasly’s growing influence in the paddock has been noted by rivals and pundits alike, with his consistency and leadership becoming increasingly evident during Alpine’s turbulent seasons.
Alpine executive advisior Flavio Briatore, who returned to Alpine earlier this year in a high-profile comeback, hailed the announcement as a key step in the team’s rebuilding effort.
“Since I returned to the team, I have always stated how important it is to build and grow the competitiveness of Alpine,” Briatore said. “We’re well prepared for the new era of Formula 1 beginning in 2026, and now we have our lead driver confirmed to take us into the future.
“Pierre has been an immense asset during this challenging period. I have been very impressed with his attitude, dedication and talent, and we look forward to continuing this project together for a long time.”
Alpine looks ahead to 2026
Alpine’s renewed commitment to Gasly also reflects wider structural changes within the team. Backed by the Renault Group and its new CEO Francois Provost, the squad has doubled down on its ambition to return to the front of the grid.
The sweeping technical regulations coming in 2026 – with new power unit rules and a greater emphasis on sustainable fuels – represent a reset moment for Formula 1, and Alpine wants Gasly as its spearhead for the new era.
The team is still yet to confirm Gasly’s teammate for 2026 and beyond. Rookie Franco Colapinto is currently in the second seat, though his long-term future with Alpine has not been confirmed.
For Gasly, though, the focus is clear: he is tied to Alpine through the next four years, giving both driver and team the stability to grow together. As one of only a handful of French drivers in Formula 1 history to have stood on the podium for a French manufacturer, his deal represents both continuity and national pride.
“Driving for Alpine isn’t just about competing in Formula 1 – it’s about being part of a French project with a rich history and big ambitions for the future,” Gasly said. “That’s something I want to build on for the years ahead.”
With Gasly now locked in until 2028, Alpine has its leader in place. The challenge will be delivering him a car worthy of fighting at the front when the sport’s new era begins.
- John Smith
Thursday, 31 October 2024
MCKENNIE, WEAH SCORE AS JUVENTUS DRAW WITH PARMA
United States internationals Weston McKennie and Tim Weah salvaged Juventus' unbeaten start to the season.
The duo scored on Wednesday to help Juventus draw 2-2 at Parma. Enrico Delprato and Simon Sohm had twice given Parma the lead.
Juventus are on 18 points, seven adrift of leaders Napoli, and slipped to fourth as Atalanta moved a point ahead after their 2-0 win over Monza. Parma are 14th on nine points.
It was the second successive game Juventus had to come from behind to salvage a point after a 4-4 draw at Inter Milan on Sunday.
"I think today we conceded too many restarts. At their goal kicks we were trying to bring the defender out to then be able to press and cause an error, but we didn't succeed," Juventus head coach Thiago Motta told broadcaster DAZN.
"In the defensive phase we made a lot of mistakes."
Parma started fast and after working the ball across the pitch from a corner kick, Adrián Bernabé's cross into the box was nodded back across goal by Botond Balogh and Delprato headed into the roof of the net.
Juventus should have drawn level 10 minutes later after Zion Suzuki saved a header from McKennie, but when the rebound fell to Dusan Vlahovic he somehow sent his shot over the bar.
McKennie, however, made no mistake when his USMNT teammate Weah whipped a ball into the area, steering his header past the dive of Suzuki but Parma were soon back in front as Juventus struggled to deal with the pace of the visitors.
Dennis Man collected a long ball in the area and pulled back the perfect pass for Sohm to drill past Di Gregorio and they held their lead until the break.
Juventus's unbeaten record was on the line but they pulled level again shortly after the interval. Khephren Thuram powered through from midfield before passing to Francisco Conceição out wide and his cross was volleyed home by Weah from close range.
In the draw at Inter, Kenan Yildiz came off the bench to score the two goals which levelled the match, but the Turkish forward was among the substitutes against Parma, replacing Weah and almost scoring an added-time winner.
"Weah played well at San Siro and again today, scoring," Motta told Sky Sports.
"Kenan coming on later, with the game more open, is an ideal player to create situations. He has freedom in the final metres, it was normal today to want to open things up against such a closed team."
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Game Information
Allianz Stadium
10:45 PM, October 30, 2024
Torino, Italy
Line: JUV -1.5
Over/Under: 2.5
Referees: Luca Zufferli
- ESPN News Services
Monday, 2 September 2024
LECLERC CAPITALISES ON MCLAREN'S MISSTEPS TO TAKE MONZA WIN
MONZA, Italy -- For the final 10 laps of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, Monza's Centrale Grandstand, which has stood overlooking Formula One's fastest pit straight for 102 years, erupted in celebration each time Charles Leclerc tore past.
A Ferrari win on home soil had looked unlikely for the majority of the 53-lap race, but as the Tifosi watched the remaining laps count down, they started to believe. From within the cockpit, Leclerc could glimpse the fans rising to their feet and started to sense what it would mean to them if he could keep Oscar Piastri's McLaren behind him.
"The last three, four, five laps it was quite difficult to keep the eyes on the track and I was obviously looking a little bit in the grandstand," he said. "I could see everybody was standing up and that was really nice to see. It's a very special feeling. I could also see some red smoke at one point, so I knew everybody was super excited, but I also knew that I had to finish the job.
"But yeah, in the last five, six laps, I felt like we had it. The tyres felt good and I could see that Oscar was not that fast to catch me before the end of the race if I was not doing any mistakes."
Leclerc and Ferrari were gambling on making a single set of tyres last two thirds of the race, and by doing so had taken second place and then the lead from Piastri and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris when the Papaya pair pitted for a second time on Laps 32 and 38, respectively. The McLaren pit wall had hoped Leclerc would either follow the same pit call blindly or, by staying out on a one-stop strategy, suffer a significant drop off in performance that would allow at least Piastri to breeze past in the final laps and retake the lead.
The visible emotions of the top three drivers after the chequered flag told the story of how the race unfolded. Leclerc couldn't hold back a beaming smile as he stood on the top step of the podium after executing a perfect strategy while the body language of Piastri and Norris was tense and frustrated.
For Norris, this was another missed opportunity. As has been the case at every race in which he has started from pole position, the McLaren driver lost first place by the time he started the second lap. At Monza it happened at Turn 4 as Piastri hit the brakes later than his teammate into the second chicane and muscled Norris out of the lead.
The British driver has a genuine shot at beating Max Verstappen to the title this year, but to do so needs to capitalise on every opportunity he gets to close the gap in the standings. Had he won at Monza, which should have been possible from pole position given McLaren's performance, the gap to Verstappen, who finished sixth, would have closed from 70 points to 52 in one afternoon. His eventual third-place finish means it actually stands at 62.
Piastri's firm-but-fair overtake appeared to take Norris by surprise, and as he controlled a slide mid-chicane, he opened the door for Leclerc to take second place on the exit. It raised the question of whether McLaren should have issued team orders to stop Piastri taking points off Norris, but other than asking them to play by "Papaya rules," it seems they were free to race.
Asked what the "Papaya rules" (named in reference to the team's trademark orange paint) consisted of, after the race McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said: "With your teammate, race them hard, race them clean, don't touch. That happened. But it was an aggressive pass, so that's a conversation that we will have.
"It was a bit nerve wracking on the pit wall, but it's really just respect your teammate. Lando got a bad run out of that corner as well, so kind of opened the door a little bit, but it would have been nice to see them run one-two a little bit longer."
Asked whether he could have defended harder against Piastri on the opening lap, Norris added: "Just brake a bit later. Simple as that. But sometimes it's easier said than done.
"Oscar obviously braked on the limit and gave me space. It was just about enough. I did my best to avoid anything else happening at the time.
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| Charles Leclerc took a surprising, famous win for Ferrari in front of the Italian fans at Monza on Sunday. Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images |
"But at the same time, if I brake two metres later, you don't know and you can't predict, but two metres later and it could easily have been a crash. So it's a tough one. The easiest thing is just to brake way later and force him off and I kind of treat it like anyone else.
"I obviously took it easy. I saw we had a massive gap behind, so maybe I was just a bit too much on the cautious side and paid the price."
For Piastri, the move for the lead was his for the taking as soon as Norris gave him enough space around the outside.
"I braked later and got around the outside," the Australian said. "There wasn't really much more to it than that. We both got through unscathed.
"I knew once I hit the brakes, I kind of got ahead a bit, and yeah, I knew I was kind of entitled to stay on the outside. And yeah, ultimately, for 38 laps of that race, it put me in a race-winning position. So yeah, for me, it was just a good first lap."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella gave no hint that either driver had stepped over the mark, but said the incident, and the possibility of future team orders, would be discussed internally.
"We will have to review together with the drivers, with the videos, understand their point of view and then we will assess together whether they were fully compliant or not," he said. "We will take the learning, if there is any learning they need to take, and then we will apply the Papaya rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner both the constructors' championship and the drivers' championship, because we have to now be in the condition to acknowledge that not only the constructors' championship is possible.
"But even from the driver's point of view, with the performance that we have in the car and some of the struggles we see with Red Bull, it is definitely possible."
After McLaren's success at recent races, there was a temptation to think Piastri should have won with ease once he took the lead on the first lap. A week earlier in Zandvoort, Norris had won comfortably ahead of Verstappen, and with the Red Bull driver struggling down the order after a slow pit stop, it was the perfect opportunity to steal as many points from McLaren's championship rivals as possible.
What's more, prior to Monza, Leclerc and Ferrari had not won a race since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, and even with a major upgrade package and a Monza-specific rear wing, they were seen as outsiders heading into the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
Unlike recent races, though, Sunday's grand prix presented a very specific challenge, with Monza's new super-smooth track surface generating front-left tyre graining that then became the limiting factor over the course of the race. Graining happens when the surface of the tyre starts to roll up into small balls of rubber, significantly reducing grip levels as the tyre slides across the track surface.
For the vast majority of the season, the McLaren has been one of the kindest cars on its tyres, but that's because the limiting factor on tyre performance is usually the more common phenomenon of overheating the rears. In Monza, the McLaren drivers struggled relative to the Ferraris to maintain performance through the graining, allowing Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz to complete one-stop strategies while McLaren pitted twice for fear of losing more time by staying out.
On the face of it, McLaren had the faster car and pitted Piastri and Norris out of the lead, but Stella believes it was not as simple as that.
"In terms of the race today, I think there may be a misunderstanding that the McLaren was by far the fastest car," he said. "I think Leclerc was as fast as McLaren today because he could stay with Oscar in the first stint, and normally when you have the dirty air [from the car in front] and you can stay with the race leader, you are at least as fast as the race leader.
"This normally leads to some [tyre performance] degradation, like Leclerc had in the final bit of the first stint. And even in the second stint he was behind two McLarens and still he could stay with the McLarens.
"Even if you look at the practice and the qualifying, I think lap times were essentially within the noise of putting together laps. So I think Ferrari this weekend, they were as competitive as us, at least with Leclerc, which for us is somehow bad news because it meant we couldn't simply cruise in the race and we needed to deal with them and they did a good job at exploiting some of their strengths."
McLaren's concerns about graining meant it was not confident enough to commit to a one-stop strategy, and by leaving Piastri's second stop until Lap 38, it invited Ferrari to go the extra 15 laps and hold the lead until the chequered flag.
Another key factor was that Leclerc, after dropping behind Norris at the first pit stop, had not pushed his tyres hard early in the second stint, while the McLarens had. Pushing the tyres hard early in the stint was a surefire way to induce the graining, so by losing a position and not needing to pump in fast lap times after his first stop, Leclerc was actually preparing his tyres perfectly for a race-winning second stint.
Asked whether he had also considered a one-stop, Piastri said: "Clearly not as seriously as I needed to. I think, for me, it was a big risk to do that. The graining of the tyres has been a big topic all weekend. In practice, once you got graining, it was basically game over.
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| McLaren's strategy decisions ensured that its drivers fell behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc when the chequers waved in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images |
"I guess nobody really expected the graining to clear up on Charles, from what I heard. So yeah, in hindsight, clearly stopping once was the right thing to do, but from that point in the race with all the information that we'd gathered through the weekend, it seemed incredibly risky and that's kind of the blessing and the curse of leading the race -- the guys behind you can react to what you do.
"For Charles, if he did a two-stop, he would have locked in third, and if he did a one-stop and fell off the cliff, he still would have finished third. But, of course, he pulled the one-stop off and Ferrari look like the hero today.
"Obviously it hurts at the moment, but I think in the moment it was the right thing to do."
As popular as the Ferrari win at Monza was, it's too early to suggest they are back in the regular fight for victories. Leclerc, knowing Monza's unusual track characteristics and new track surface had contributed to the win, warned against reading too much into the result and suggested Verstappen, who suffered his worst weekend since Monaco, would be back as McLaren's main challenger for the remaining races.
"Before this race, I don't think I was seeing myself challenging for wins anywhere else," Leclerc said. "Singapore maybe could be a strong track for us, on the other tracks, I still feel like we are a step behind McLaren and Red Bull.
"But today we've seen that we can be very on a par with McLaren if we do everything perfect. Again, I think that the upgrade has helped us in some ways today to have the same pace as them.
"However, for the other tracks, I don't know whether it will be enough to completely close the gap, especially the gap we've seen in the previous races, not here. So, yeah, we've got to wait and see, but we've done some steps forward. I think we need some others."
- Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
Sunday, 1 September 2024
Friday, 30 August 2024
Sunday, 26 May 2024
Tuesday, 5 September 2023
FERRARI HAIL INCREDIBLE X FACTOR
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| LAT Images |
Ferrari have applauded the 'insane' support that the team received during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
In front of their adoring home fans, Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc produced a brilliant performance, to take home third and fourth behind the two Red Bull's of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
Sainz managed to hold off Verstappen for 14 laps at the start of Sunday's race, before the Dutchman went on the win his Formula 1 record tenth consecutive race.
Those 14 laps in which Sainz led at the start of the race were the most laps led by any driver other than Verstappen and Perez in a race in the whole of 2023.
Sainz also managed to beat Verstappen to pole position on Saturday, sending the Tifosi wild, while Leclerc also put his car on the second row to give Ferrari the best chance to perform during the race.
Monday, 4 September 2023
Sunday, 3 September 2023
Saturday, 2 September 2023
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