Martin Brundle summed up the Italian Grand Prix

Former Formula 1 driver, Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle summed up the Italian Grand Prix…

It was one of the best races in Monza in recent times, I really enjoyed it. Max Verstappen has won ten consecutive Grands Prix this season and Red Bull has won all fifteen. It is incredible that they manage to maintain such a high level of efficiency and reliability on different tracks, in different weather conditions when fighting strong opponents. Congratulations to each of them.

If a tennis player or a football team were this perfect and dominated, they would rightfully receive worldwide recognition. I was therefore somewhat surprised when Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff downplayed their rivals’ performances over the weekend, even though they themselves deservedly received due respect and recognition during their dominance from 2014 to 2020.

At the same time, Max and Red Bull will no doubt reflect on some past actions and words that have somewhat diluted their current valuation in some circles. But this happens when there are so many people with strong competition in one place.

The star of the Italian Grand Prix was, of course, Carlos Sainz. It was clear from the start that Ferrari was focusing on Monza, using a special aerodynamic body kit and new power units. This race was of great importance to them, Sainz was in top form from the start of the weekend and on Saturday he was able to take pole position from Verstappen.

Many in the paddock believed the Red Bull cars would be faster and save rubber. Ferrari understood this too. Sainz and Leclerc knew they had to pull out all the stops, and they did. The Ferrari team and its fans love aggressive, passionate, never-failing racers, and many former heroes such as Gilles Villeneuve serve as benchmarks for them.

Sainz defended brilliantly against attacks from Verstappen, Perez and Leclerc. He positioned the car perfectly on the track and aggressively resisted maneuvers in the outside radius, especially in the first corner. Sometimes his defensive moves came a little late, sometimes he broke the rules, moved more than once and didn’t always leave room for the opponent. It was a joy to watch and the stewards should be given credit for allowing a tough fight.

The rules say that if an opponent tries to overtake on the outside radius and the front wheel of their car catches up to yours, you must give them a spot, which essentially means you must let them pass.

It’s not always easy to tell exactly where the apex is in tight corners, but in the first 90 degrees right/90 degrees left chicane it’s pretty obvious. The problem is that it’s so narrow that two abiding riders can barely pass side-by-side, and the rider inside doesn’t have enough control over the front tires to simply increase the angle in the corners. There will be contact and riders will claim to have been pushed off the track.

Both Ferrari drivers put up a strong defense against Red Bull, but it was clear that they would eventually battle each other for the remaining third place on the podium at Monza.

They fought, showed a lot of aggression and made a few misses, which was very exciting. Both drivers said they enjoyed it, while Leclerc reflected on the karting days. If the riders like it and they get to fight, then the fans will like it too. If these guys had an accident and got out, there would be chaos and blame. But that didn’t happen.

Sainz was the best among the non-Red Bull drivers. 11 seconds behind Verstappen is better than half a minute or more in some races of the season. At the end of the race, however, Max had to slow down to protect the car from overheating.

Sergio Perez also achieved an excellent result. In qualifying he was again a bit out of his element, but in the race he managed to pass Russell, Leclerc and Sainz. He was able to break away from Fernando Alonso with 49 points, giving him a foothold in second place in the individual standings. This will give him more confidence for the last eight races. I feel that after some difficult stages, he has regained control of the situation.

Russell had a strong weekend for Mercedes on track, where they were stronger than McLaren and Aston Martin. Lewis coupled up Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at the second chicane, for which he nobly took credit – and apologized to the Australian rookie, who had another good weekend.

Alex Albon and Lando Norris came to Monza from Monaco in the same car and also ran side-by-side in the race, finishing within a third of a second of each other. Norris was unable to catch up with Albon’s fast Williams, who again unmistakably withstood the pressure.

Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri, made a good impression. Looks like he still has a chance until Riccardo’s compound fracture heals completely.

The weekend turned out not to be a success for Alpine and to a lesser extent Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso was only able to take ninth place, which could have been tenth without Piastri’s contact with Hamilton. But Singapore is leading the way, where the balance of power will shift again.

In Monza, an “alternative choice of tires” was used for the second time this year. Riders were given 11 sets of slicks – 3 sets of Hard each and 4 sets of Medium and Soft. This is a total of two sets less than normal, and also only four Soft sets instead of eight.

The weekend was held in dry weather and an “alternative choice” could be evaluated. In general, everything went well, but the results of Friday practice are now even more difficult to interpret, because those who do not expect to qualify for the second part of the qualification or the final take a completely different approach to choosing during training of tires. And this will always contribute to a decrease in the number of training circles, not an increase.

I don’t mind if the decision is made and we stick to it. At the moment we have too many tire combinations for different qualifying formats and races. Many in the paddock have a hard time remembering them. I think the fans don’t have to worry either and the teams will adapt if necessary.