The first day of free practice at Monza starts not so much from what the track has told, but from how it has changed. After many years in which the Brianza track had not undergone any changes, the Autodromo has been renovated with a new asphalt and modified kerbs, which have also changed the character of a circuit that the drivers must partly rediscover. Of course, the starting point is always the same, but it is clear that with lower kerbs on which it is easy to cut the trajectory and a completely renewed asphalt, and still rather dirty at the start of the day, Monza now offers a challenge to rediscover.
The asphalt will realistically see a great evolution over the course of the weekend, also thanks to the support series that will leave rubber increasing grip, but at the beginning it proved to be very slippery, creating further stress on the tyres that suffered from graining. Added to this is the fact that the cars here run with rather unloaded wings, accentuating this phenomenon even more. It is no coincidence that it was evident for several teams during the long runs, including Red Bull and Ferrari, with the latter also seeing it on the medium.
However, the situation should evolve tomorrow, with the track improving further, although at the moment there is still a question mark on the strategies. Today only Yuki Tsunoda tried the hard, while the others kept the second set. Considering that in Monza the time lost for the break is quite significant, it is possible to imagine that the teams will still aim for a break, with the second set of hard as plan B in case a further break is necessary.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
McLaren: The most consistent in the corners
Moving on to what the track said instead, the times found on Friday are difficult to read, also because there are several considerations to make, but they provide several ideas. Lewis Hamilton is the driver who recorded the best time on Friday in a day once again dedicated to experiments, with a work of comparing the surface that in FP2 led the Englishman to confirm the latest news. According to the drivers, the W15 proved to be well balanced right from the start of the session, but the W15 made top speeds its strong point on Friday, with top speeds even higher than 4 km/h compared to the McLaren, suffering more on the Lesmo curves where great support is needed and where the MCL38, with its overall load, is able to express itself better, guaranteeing more confidence to the driver. A few more difficulties in the first chicane for Hamilton compared to all his main rivals, even if several drivers made mistakes today.
However, McLaren’s laps are perhaps the ones to be taken with a pinch of salt. Norris’s best time came in a lap that McLaren had asked to abort: it wouldn’t be the first time that the Briton hasn’t revealed all his cards in free practice, only to find something more at the decisive moment in qualifying. Even more interesting, however, is Oscar Piastri’s time, as it could have been significantly faster than the one actually recorded, which would have put him in the lead of the standings.
In fact, exiting the Ascari, the Australian lost the rear end while having to control oversteer, which forced him to ease off the accelerator: this weighed on the entire stretch leading to the Parabolica, where in fact Piastri was 10 km/h slower than his teammate for a long time. A mistake that cost him over two tenths, demonstrating that the McLaren driver could have been much faster than he actually was. Overall, the MCL38 proved to be extremely quick on the corners, especially on the two Lesmo corners compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, who instead paid a little more as a deficit.
Hamilton – Norris Telemetry Comparison FP2 Italy
Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro
It remains to be seen how much the Woking team has held back on the straights and how much, on the contrary, is a liability due even more to aerodynamic deficiencies: last year, in fact, on these configurations the MCL60 did not excel. Compared to Mercedes, which shares the same Power Unit, the gap is rather marked on all the straights, while compared to Ferrari it remains present on all the extensions except for the one where the starting grid is located.
Ferrari smiles, but better balance is needed
The one who ended the day with a smile was Ferrari, especially Charles Leclerc, who said he was satisfied not only with the performance, but also with the innovations brought for the home GP. The Reds debuted in Monza a package not only to adapt to the track, but also aimed at solving some problems encountered recently while adding aerodynamic load. For now, the much-feared bouncing has not appeared in an annoying way, unlike other teams, including for example Alpine, which especially in the middle of the curve has had to fight against this annoying phenomenon.
In terms of performance, the SF-24 does not seem to be far from its rivals with its very light set-up which, in fact, has made it among the fastest on the straights in the comparison between the four top teams, in line with the Mercedes references to give an idea. Where the Maranello single-seater has shown some more signs of difficulty are in the two Lesmos in the central sector, where among other things Leclerc himself had been the author of a big oversteer previously, a sign that in the areas where great stability and support are needed there is still something to improve. From this point of view it will be very interesting to understand if the improvement of the track in the next few days will favor the Italian team, also because there are other sections on which it will be essential to work, such as the Parabolica, where the two Rossis are unable to be as effective on the entry as their opponents, struggling to bring speed into the insertion phase.
Hamilton – Sainz FP2 Italy Telemetry Comparison
Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro
Leclerc underlined how much the first day satisfied him in terms of performance, with a much more convincing starting point than the one in Zandvoort, but it will be equally fundamental to work to improve the balance. Since the first session, the Monegasque complained about a difficult car to drive, an aspect that he had actually already mentioned in other Grands Prix. In fact, the Monegasque also received a lot of driving advice from the pits, in particular on how to manage the deceleration phase and the pedal peaks when braking.
The Red Bull chapter is even more difficult to read for two main reasons: on the one hand because Verstappen did not complete the lap on the soft due to a mistake at the Parabolica, on the other because on Friday the Milton Keynes team is always very conservative with the engine mappings. Furthermore, the RB20 does not have a very low downforce wing, but simply a standard wing with a DRS flap cut into several sections. In fact, the gap on the straights was visible, even if not so much in terms of top speed, but also in terms of progression in acceleration, especially towards the Ascari.
Before aborting the lap due to the mistake on the last corner, the data shows that Verstappen’s lap on the plane of the speed in the curve was still good, especially at Ascari, where evidently the lower kerbs this year also helped to tackle the stretch with greater ease. Even in the Lesmo area, the Dutchman seems to be the only one capable of keeping up with the pace of the McLarens. The three-time world champion is aware that the situation is more delicate on the flying lap, while he felt more confident, as did Sergio Perez, in the race simulations, where only towards the end did the tyre start to suffer a lot from graining, with a more marked increase in times.
This is also why analyzing the long runs at Monza is extremely complex: in addition to the possible traffic, which in reality several drivers encountered with the use of DRS to overtake, which weighs on the times, the graining effect today hit many teams. Before this phenomenon was triggered, despite Verstappen having made a slow introduction precisely to try to prevent it, Red Bull’s times were competitive with the average. McLaren is perhaps the team that proved to be the most balanced overall, but what will make the difference will be above all the night work, where it will be very important to be able to understand how much the track will evolve in order not to get burned.
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