Max Verstappen won the F1 Italian GP from pole with a gap of 19 seconds to Lando Norris in second position. The Dutch driver was never in doubt as he completed the pole, led every lap, fastest lap, race victory, grand slam today. By winning in Monza, Verstappen has won both Italian Grands Prix in the same season for the second time in his career.
Verstappen on his third win in the temperamental RB21
The Red Bull driver’s display of pace in qualifying signified a true understanding of the RB21 car. This is something that has been missing from Verstappen’s track record this season. Although the reigning world champion has been racking up a good points total so far, this car seemed to puzzle Verstappen every few weekends this season.
Verstappen felt completely in tune with his car this weekend for the first time in a while, which produced a dominant display for the driver. He commented on this ease within the car in his post-race press conference.
“Yeah, it just seems like this weekend has been another step forward with just the behaviour of the car and yeah that also then shows in the race I think. So that was a big positive for us.
“The car was doing a little bit more what I liked.”
Race after race, Verstappen has identified the balance of the RB21 as the main hindrance of the car. When asked what specifically went right with the car this weekend, he identified the balance of the car improving noticeably.
“Before it just feels like you’re a passenger in the car, you know, like we had some races where it was just not balanced and now finally there was more balance in the car and then you know the tyres also then behave a little bit more normal.”
Verstappen further commented that new Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies has been a great help with the technical aspect of the car.
“Up until now you know we’ve had a lot of races where we were just shooting left and right a little bit with the setup of the car like quite extreme changes which shows that we were not in control.
“We were not fully understanding what to do, and I think with Laurent [Mekies], yeah, having an engineering background he’s asking the right questions to the engineers common sense questions so I think that works really well.”
Verstappen on fighting with the McLarens, vital strategy decisions, and pace on hard tyres
What ultimately won Max Verstappen the Italian GP was a combination of maintaining track position, speed on the hard tyre, and a strategy misstep from the McLarens.
Red Bull brought Verstappen in to pit on lap 37 when he had a five second lead on Norris in P2. By the time he exited pit lane, he was 19.6 seconds off of Norris who was then in the lead. On hard tyres, Verstappen cut this gap to the lead down to 9.7 seconds when Piastri came in to pit 8 laps later on lap 45.
The Dutchman’s gap to Norris was down to 8.3 seconds when Norris pit one lap later. A pitstop error cost Norris an extra couple of seconds, and then a team strategy later cost the McLarens another handful of seconds the next lap.
Verstappen commented on Red Bull’s strategy, and also how he gained from the McLarens banking on caution in the post-race press conference.
“We did a bit more of a normal strategy, you know, medium hard. Of course McLaren stayed out to try and gamble for the safety car and I think that’s why of course the gap is a little bit bigger than it should have been but still for us an incredible weekend.”
This strategy call was not necessarily the difference between Verstappen winning or losing the lead, however. The Red Bull driver’s speed on the hard tyre was undeniable. After the initial battle for the lead, Verstappen was able to settle in and dominate the remainder of the race.
“There was a lot going on after the first lap even into turn one. I think Oscar and Charles were fighting as well, I could see in my mirror, so it took like two, three laps to settle in a bit and then from there onwards it was fine.
“Once I got back in the lead I just tried to focus on my own pace and it just kept on going, kept going well. I would say only the last maybe six to eight laps of that stint I started to struggle a little bit on that medium but up until that point yeah it was nice for once.”
When asked if the way the weekend shaped up after an unimpressive Friday gives him hope for the rest of the season, Verstappen stated that it depends on a given weekend’s circumstances.
“Well I think it’s still a bit track dependent, I mean here you drive low downforce, it always seems like our car is a little bit more competitive when it’s low to medium downforce, so it’s not like suddenly now we are back you know, it’s not like we we can fight I think every single weekend.
“But the positive is that we seem to understand a little bit more what we need to do with the car to be more competitive, so I hope that that just carries on into the coming rounds as well and some tracks will be a bit better than others.”
Despite his dominant win being secured by several outside factors, Verstappen and his understanding of the RB21 has improved noticeably. The four-time world champion deemed this weekend a step in the right direction.
“You just try to understand from the things that you have tried, you know, that at one point some things of course give you a bit of an idea of a direction and that’s what we kept on working on.
“Yeah I definitely felt that in Zandvoort already we took a step that seemed to work quite well, and then here another step which, yeah, felt again a little bit better.”
