Monza is Red. In its home Grand Prix, Ferrari took its third win of the season after Australia and Monaco, but the one in Monza probably has a special, different flavour, especially for how it came about. The Prancing Horse was the only top team to gamble on a single stop, which turned out to be the winning choice.
Scrolling through the standings, in fact, one can actually notice how other mid-group teams have also managed to make this tactic work and be effective, but with a much slower pace in the initial and central phases of the second stint, and then almost aligning themselves towards the end.
Ferrari’s strength, in this case, was not so much and only that of focusing on the single stop, because already on the eve it was given as the privileged strategy, but in adopting it and, at the same time, managing to make it work by reading the scenarios well in real time, despite a high pace. There are several elements that allowed and enabled the Reds to achieve a result that the fans will remember for a long time, starting with the overtaking on Lando Norris on the first lap.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
The first stint changed the cards on the table
Without a shadow of a doubt, that overtaking found during the opening lap profoundly changed the race scenarios, especially because it pushed McLaren to react and probably plan some race choices differently. On Saturday, almost jokingly, Frederic Vasseur had said that probably in the first stint everyone would have pushed and the same was true for Leclerc, who in fact paid the price towards the end of the first stint: on the other hand, however, paradoxically this was also one of the keys to the Monegasque’s success.
Having skilfully overtaken Norris by slipping in at the exit of the second chicane, the Ferrari driver tried to maintain the pace of Piastri at the head of the race, constantly pushing through the fastest corners, those that put the most stress on the tyres and that had been a problem for everything else, such as the two Lesmos and the Parabolica. It is no coincidence that, even from the pits, already during the first laps, they constantly repeated to preserve the tyres, while Leclerc’s goal was to continue pushing to stay in the DRS zone, something that would pay off later when he suffered a drop in tyre performance.
In fact, when he started to lose the rubber after 11/12 laps, the gap to the leader opened up more and more markedly: in the space of five laps, Leclerc went from fighting in the DRS zone to accumulating a four-second disadvantage, also giving Norris the chance to get closer. At the same time, however, it is also essential to understand what the plans of the Woking team were, which, in reality, like many others, had started to focus on the single stop, or Plan A.
Telemetry comparison Leclerc plates – Monza race
It is precisely at this juncture that things probably take on a different scenario. Although the two papaya standard-bearers began to suffer from slight understeer, which in turn pushed towards the first signs of graining, McLaren did not really try to capitalise on Leclerc’s difficulties, preferring to attempt an undercut. Here it is to be understood how concrete McLaren’s doubt was that it could be the Monegasque to stop first, but it is clear that it was the British team itself that triggered the sequence of pit stops.
On the one hand, this did not allow Piastri to continue increasing his advantage, while on the other it also pushed Leclerc towards the pit stop, doing a favor to the Reds. Although the Prancing Horse had also focused on the single pit stop, as can be seen with Sainz, Vasseur explained that the strategists thought they could have an advantage over McLaren, so they wanted to follow the strategy by recalling Leclerc, while the Spaniard was able to stay on track for a few more laps, even if he paid the price since he was going through the graining phase.
How Ferrari Read the Right Strategy
The evolution of the track, which played a key role lap after lap, had a major impact on the race vision in the second stint. In the first part of the race, there was quite a lot of graining and this probably confused many teams about what the most suitable tactic was. Looking at Red Bull, which started on hard tyres, the feeling was that the graining was higher than expected on that compound but, with the progressive improvement of the track, those same indications actually became counterproductive.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, pit stop
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
According to Pirelli data, there was a great evolution of the track between the first and second stint, due to the rubber left lap after lap by twenty cars still on the track. However, it is clear that, based on what was seen previously, the teams began to review what strategies could be and both McLaren and Ferrari began to lean towards two stops for both cars.
Two factors changed the situation again: the drivers’ feedback and Norris’ situation. Just like Leclerc in the first stint, in the second part of the race the British driver was the first to go into the graining phase. However, the main factor was the mistake at Roggia, with a long one that allowed Leclerc to get closer and apply pressure, so much so that Ferrari had considered coming back with the Monegasque in case Norris had stayed on the track. In this case too, for McLaren the move was defensive, which then also led Piastri to stop.
According to Andrea Stella, the stop was also necessary due to some characteristics of the car: “I think our car traditionally tends to be very good on the rear tyres, but when it comes to front graining, we tend to be aggressive. This made us a bit nervous. Especially after Lando had a lock-up on the front left a couple of laps earlier.”
Clearly, the fact that the Australian had also shown some signs of weakness was a theme followed in McLaren, because in fact the times were slightly rising in the most acute phase of graining, but still remained competitive and in line with those of Leclerc. In fact, the Woking team found itself at a crossroads: cover the Ferrari strategy, or follow Norris’s tactic before he lost the position and it was too late.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
McLaren found itself at a crossroads
In fact, precisely in that phase, Ferrari had increasingly considered the possibility of focusing on the single stop for two reasons: on the one hand, the feedback from Sainz, the first to propose it, tended precisely in that direction. It is no coincidence that, looking at the Spaniard’s times, in reality halfway through the stint they were excellent and in line with those of his teammate, thanks also to a very gentle introduction after the first pit. On the other hand, however, an even more fundamental aspect, Norris’ pace in the first 5 laps of his final stint was not so exceptional compared to the two leading drivers, also due to the various overtaking moves he had to make. For Ferrari this was an invitation to the wedding, because those seconds not earned by the British driver could have played a fundamental role.
The problem at that point with Piastri became twofold: on the one hand, they wanted to continue waiting to understand if the single stop was actually possible, given that the pace was good and he wasn’t losing time to Leclerc. On the other hand, perhaps they waited a bit too long, because the final stint was only 15 laps against the 22 of the central one. Basically, most likely, the desire was really to try to cover the Rossa’s strategy with at least one of the two cars, but at that point a problem arose.
On the one hand, Piastri’s indication that getting to the end would be very difficult: in reality, the Australian had said that the tyre was not getting worse, but only that the pace would not improve, which was not essential anyway. On the other hand, waiting any longer would have seriously risked the Australian coming back into Norris’ pit window, putting McLaren in an uncomfortable situation. In fact, both Stella and Piastri later admitted that it would probably have been better to try to overcome the graining phase, going all the way.
However, once the graining was managed, as shown by the pace not only of Leclerc, but also in general of the drivers who opted for the single stop in the top ten, the pace was still competitive, precisely because this was not a race with high degradation. The most important difference is that Ferrari, compared to other teams, was able to read the race in real time, react and manage the tyre despite a much more important pace.
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