Before the Italian Grand Prix, Mika Hakkinen, a former racer and two-time world champion, shared his prediction for the 14th round of the championship, and also shared his memories of the classic track in Monza..
I have good memories of Monza, because I was on the podium there four times, speaking for McLaren. First in 1994 I finished third in a Peugeot powered car, one of five podiums that season. The result can be called excellent, because I was seventh in qualifying.
The following year – our first season with Mercedes engines – I also qualified seventh, and although the race was full of accidents, including red flag stops, I managed to avoid problems and finish second.
In 1996 I was on the podium again, but then I had to wait until 2000 when I again took 2nd place and set the fastest lap.
In 1999 I missed out on victory, although I started from pole and led by a wide margin. But on the 30th lap he flew off the track due to the fact that Rettifilo made a mistake when changing gears in the chicane. I was very upset then. If I was driving I should have won that race, but that’s motorsport.
Things can go wrong, you have to do everything 100% right, and this is another reason why you shouldn’t think that achieving the dominance that Max Verstappen achieved is easy. Winning in Formula 1 is never easy!
But who will be the vice-champion? If Max continues to win race after race behind the wheel of a Red Bull Racing car, then this question will have to be asked. He continues to drive well and the car allows him to start from pole position – it’s nice to have that lead.
In theory, Sergio Perez should keep Max company on the front row of the grid if he manages to qualify well, but in reality the racers from four teams are arguing for the rest of the high positions. Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ferrari and McLaren claim the first three rows.
This weekend Pirelli is opting for an alternative approach to tire distribution for the second time this season, meaning teams will have just 11 sets of slicks instead of 13, and will have to run hard tires in the first part of qualifying. Medium, and in the final – on Soft. All this means that everyone will have to look for some kind of compromise, and the unpredictability will only increase.
When we talk about the situation in the Constructors’ Championship, we saw in the Netherlands that the Aston Martin team has taken a step forward and that Fernando Alonso is once again performing with great confidence. He had some tough races between Austria and Belgium, but at Zandvoort he qualified well and on Sunday he finished 2nd and set the best lap. Fernando will try to keep up the momentum in Monza, where he has already won twice.
Lewis Hamilton has won the Italian Grand Prix five times. At Zandvoort it seemed to him that the Mercedes car allowed him to fight for high positions, and although the team did not choose the best tactics during the race, the W14 had speed. Lewis and George Russell are expected to show good results in qualifying.
Ferrari lack speed and stability this year, so it’s hard to imagine Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz claiming the podium in the home race. The Scuderia is just 14 points behind Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship, but that doesn’t paint the full picture.
Three-quarters of Aston Martin’s points scored for the team have been earned by Fernando, while Carlos and Charles can’t match him in terms of performance. On average, a Ferrari car can be considered the fourth fastest this year.
Lando Norris was second in qualifying at Silverstone, third in Hungary and second again at Zandvoort on Saturday. Although the pace of the McLaren car on Sunday upset him, I think he will have a chance to fight for a good result at Monza.
It’s worth remembering that it was the McLaren team that won this race in 2021 with a winning double, and while we all expect Italy to be dominated by Max, don’t be surprised if Norris and Piastri Mercedes, able to upset Aston Martin and Ferrari. the course of the battle for the podium.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
