How Ferrari snatched shock F1 win from McLaren at Italian GP

Ferrari versus McLaren charlot Clerk and Ferrari stunned Formula 1 by winning the Italian Grand Prix denying McLaren what looked like a comfortable one-w finish and the chance to finally overtake Red Bull in the 2024 Constructors Championship for a long time it looked as though Oscar pastry would win easily and the clerk's best Hope was maybe fending off Lando Norris to finish second but that didn't account for a bold Ferrari strategy call and some incredible driving by the clerk Monza has so often been a one Pit Stop race but this year's Grand Prix took place on a revised layout and a brand new track surface which offered higher Peak grip than before but which also stressed the softest tires in Pell's range quite hard causing them to open up as the stints wore on a phenomenon known in the F1 trade as graining McLaren went into the race quite worried about this piastri said it had been basically game over for the tires in practice once graining set in and found it pretty difficult to keep the median compound rubber live during his first stin which only lasted until the end of lap 16 at that point getting through another 37 Laps on one set of hard compound Paredes seemed pretty unlikely especially given both Red Bulls had started the race on that tire and run into graining as early as lap 10 and the pace at the front was hot even in the first in with the cars fed with fuel piastri was running consistently in the low 1 minute 24s about 1 second poap quicker than had been consistently feasible in F P2 M clerk was hanging with him too having got past Norris on lap one when the McLaren tripped over each other at the second chicane a comparison of piastri and the clerk during that crucial second stint on the hard Tire reveals piastri was lapping just under a tenth and a half palap quicker than the clerk on average for the 20 laps between completing the out laap from his first stop and the in-lap for his second but by this stage both McLaren were running into graining problems with their front left tires Norris had been complaining about excessive underst hurting his outside front tire even in the first stint and McLaren added a couple of turns of front Wing angle to try to counter this at his first Pit Stop Norris was lapping almost 4/10 perhaps slower than his teammate during that middle phase of the race and still couldn't keep his front left tire from graining up not helped by a lock up of the brakes at one stage which damaged the tire McLaren team boss Andrea Stell says the problems Norris encountered were also present on pastry's car though probably not quite to the same degree and because of these concerns it pushed McLaren into making the second pit stop there was a trend in the pace at the front where it dropped off anywhere between 3/10 and half a second per lap from lap 34 to lap 37 when piastri made his second pit stop at this stage McLaren figured L Clerk's Ferrari had also run into this tire destroying graining phase and therefore he would also be forced to make a second stop but that isn't what happened L clerk wasn't really able to improve his Pace much but he was able to stabilize it completing the final 16 laps of his race at an average pace of 1 minute 23.62 seconds per lap only 0.04 seconds per lap faster than he'd been running before piastri made that extra stop once McLaren realized the clerk's Bas wasn't going to fall off a cliff they encouraged pastri to go flat out and Chase the clerk down for victory piastri had around 18 seconds to make up and two Ferraris to overtake he managed to overtake one but fell 2.6 second short of catching L Clair in pastry's words he needed that final stint to be perfect get delayed while lapping lsts Aston Martin meant it wasn't and so piastri fell just short of winning what looked like a race for the taking at the end of lap one Monza was always likely to be a Leclerc's brilliance better story than xanor for Ferrari maybe not this good but certainly an improvement monza's track profile played much better to the Ferrari's inherent slow Corner strengths than xan vort did it has traditionally been one of f1's best cars at getting through slow chicanes with a power unit configuration that ALS Al gives it excellent acceleration and a suspension setup that is quite forgiving over the curvs this circuit also lacks a sort of long duration highspeed Corners that expose the Ferrari's bouncing limitation that forces it into running at downfall sapping higher ride heights than his ideal Ferrari also bought a potent Monza special low down Force rear wing to this race which the clerk credited with improving Ferrari straight line speed and aiding his path to Victory alongside this was a floor upgrade designed to alleviate those bouncing problems that have been worsened since Ferrari's failed Spanish Grand Prix upgrade altogether this meant Ferrari looked in much better shape from the off in what was from the get-go an incredibly tight battle between f1's four best teams but L clerk only qualified fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell so his chances of stealing a win heading into this race still looked incredibly slim even after lerk forced his way between the McLaren on the opening lap Ferrari didn't really expect him to fight for victory Ferrari had no particular tie life Advantage it could count on based on Friday practice during which the Ferrari had actually looked marginally worst of the leading cars in terms of long run pace and ultimately only one of the Ferrari drivers made the One-Stop strategy work which means there's a certain element of L clerk magic here that made the difference if you want to understand how L clerk managed to pull off the seemingly impossible don't do what McLaren did and underestimate him yes there's an element of patience and a bit of luck involved if you're waiting or even hoping that the graining will clear and the tires will come back to you but there's also a lot of skill L clerk actually rolls out this kind of performance more than he's given credit for he's not just a one laap specialist like some think he's one of the very best on the grid for pulling off sneaky Tire Whispering races like this one L cler got an excellent feel for the tires usually it's where the limit is under traction but he's also very skilled at protecting the front axle that's a mix of judging how to bring the tires in at the start of the stint and how hard to push at the right time knowing where to lean on it around the lap and even stressing the rear axle more in certain places to gain time there and then go easier on the front somewhere else flirting with the limit of the tire has often given him a marginal but vital difference at the end of a qualifying lap as the rear dances around but it's also a vital weapon in the races The One Stop was the clerk's preferred strategy pre-race but he seemed to have similar doubts to piastri at one stage especially as Ferrari had seen how much red bull was struggling with its front left early on when starting the race on hards L clerk was still optimistic was possible though and Ferrari gave him more time to judge it than piastri had once piastri pitted L clerk felt a small but significant difference driving in clear air without a car in front of him coincidentally or not around the same time the graining cleared up his experience and feeling behind the wheel helped convince him the one stop was back on but still nobody imagined the clerk would be so quick he drove further and faster on the hards than anyone expected and a comparison with teammate Carlos SS shows the difference the clerk made the Gap from piastri to the clerk was 5.4 seconds when they stopped and SCS was 10.7 seconds behind the clerk but at the flag SCS was 15.6 seconds behind him both were eeking their tires to the end but L clerk was 2/10 a lap faster and more consistent despite his tires being four laps older if L clerk had run his extended final stint at science's PACE then piastri would have caught him at the end and probably passed him the Stars aligned well enough for it to be worth trying the execution was all a clerk just look at how the rest of the Front Runners all shuffled back into the right kind of positions and gaps as before everybody made their second stops whereas the clerk was the outlier McLaren's car started first and McLaren in-fighting second on the grid with its wounded Championship rival redb back on the fourth row and while it has still slashed the Gap to Red Bull in the Constructor standings to just eight points it was inevitably very disappointed to miss out on Victory here really this was a golden opportunity to take the lead and for Norris to take a bigger chunk out of the stappen driver's Championship Advantage but there were no team orders at play once again so beyond the role of the team strategy choice in its defeat were the actions of its drivers a pivotal piece of self-sabotage as well Norris suggested to skyports F1 after the race that the time L clerk gained against the two McLaren when piastri overtook Norris on lap one and L clerk split the two cars as well won him the race that's an oversimplification and far too definitive given all that followed but many are understandably asking if the the way it was handled overall was not in McLaren's best interests especially in the context of a distant Norris driers Championship hope and there were many claims that the wrong McLaren finished second because there was no order for pastri to let Norris buy when it became clear he was not going to pass the clerk and win let's tackle the piastri pass on lap one first it was brilliant and perfectly judged Norris claiming that if piastri had break one meter later and they'd have both been off is irrelevant because piastri didn't so that pass with no contact and his perfect ly to the ghastly papaya rules we heard get referenced in the Grand Prix there's no point trying to choreograph the opening lap of a race it's too chaotic getting through the first Corner safely did potentially give McLaren the chance to hold position but it's still far too early to try to shut things down piastri was entitled to fight he did he made his move cleanly end of but what about what followed should McLaren have moved piastri side Norris said he had no interest in asking for that because he's not here to just beg for for someone to let me pass he did however admit he would love it if McLaren and piastri threw their weight behind him and his championship bid although even then Norris conceded it's for the team to decide Norris reckons the title is still on but it's still a long shot even with Red Bull's problems and piastri was the stronger driver in the race at Monza having also out red Norris before the summer break at Spar and in Hungary before the team orders Saga there it's only one of the past four races where Norris has been conclusively better than piastri and beating him on Merit if Norris was at his xan vault level week in week out it's a different conversation but this inconsistency shows why McLaren can't just prioritize Norris from the off