Grand Prix 2020 Italian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So it my job, to try & breathe positivity into the next grand prix. usually my favourite race of the season because whereas last time out Spa is the best location. the passion & emotion of Monza usually is a nice reminder of why i got into the sport. as for the 1st time since 2010 we got to see 1 of the great sights in motorsport with a ferrari victory at monza 12 months ago. not that we will get that this year, much to mattia binotto relief. but not much beats italian national anthem at monza with a packed start straight

monza podium.jpg


Despite it being the 2nd scheduled race of the calendar & the 7th race of expected 17. makes this a very unusual italian gp in a very unusual year as it has never been this early in the calendar, for most of F1 history it would be known for being penultimate race or finale of the season, previous earliest it had been was in 2015. another fascinating part is that with the upcoming trips to Monza Mugello & Imola, F1 will be racing in the same country 3 times for the 1st time since 1982 when they raced in american 3 times at Long Beach, Detroit & Caesars palace. but weirdly not 1 of them was called the USA GP as that was on an eventual 8 year hiatus. but thats F1 for you

we all know about the 2 layouts that monza had, but in 1960 & 1961 they combined both for 10km blast which i anticipate wouldve been an interesting car setup problem to try to make the car fast on both oval & the GP circuit. but 1 driver Phil hill seemingly mastered it because he won in 1960 & then won again in 1961 sealing the F1 championship but winning the F1 title should be 1 of the happiest days of sportsman life. but it would not be happy memory but quite a sorrowful time, so the story begins on the controversial 10km layout used in 1960 & 61. the British teams & their drivers refused to enter the 1960 Italian GP because they considered the banked track too dangerous. issuing an ultimatum saying they would not enter unless the race was exclusively held on the road circuit. it fell upon deaf ears & 1960 event went fine, everyone came home safe but 12 months later dejavu the same concerns were raised, this time the owners reduced the race distance from 500km to 430km. but on lap 1 at the parabolica, tragedy struck as the polesitter & Phil Hill's teammate Wolfgang Von Trips collided with Jim Clark. shot up the grass bank which flung him out of his car killing him instantly & tragically killing 11 spectators. after that unsuprisingly the 10km layout was banned. it was tragic end because after this race Phil Hill instead of celebrating becoming world champion was mourning the loss of his teammate off & on for 3 years. he would never win another race or ever finish in top 10 at monza again

1960 monza.jpg


but on this year its going to be interesting return to Monza for Sebastian Vettel. because it be his last Italian gp for Ferrari but the question still remains will it be his last, period. as starting to feel like the racing point pendulum is moving towards sticking instead of twisting. but monza was the start of the vettel story. when he took that great win in rain of monza. which for me was the last great underdog story in F1. but last 2 years havent been kind to him. the 2018 title race unraveled here. when Ferrari had locked out the front row. for me they were huge title favourites & with favourable races upcoming, 1 hand on a 1st drivers titles for 11 years. but instead of playing long game over 53 laps. he made an ambitious move on Hamilton at Roggia chicane he spun to back of the field & 2 weeks hamilton put it 1 an inch perfect qualifying lap at singapore, ferrari never recovered. hamilton went on to win the world title with ease. Then 2019 in hindsight was the end of the road at ferrari for him. you could tell by the team celebrations & love from tifosi that leclerc was getting. that Vettel could've gone on a early flight home. very few would have realised he was absent for a long while. because the torch had been passed at that point

finally im interested to see if the qualifying farce of 2019 will carry on to 2020, when drivers were so focused on getting a slipstream that they forgot the concept of time & ran out of time to do a flying lap in Q3, many embarrassing amateurish moments to pick but Riccardo deliberately outbraking himself into the chicane so people would overtake him only for crawl to end of slip road still at the front of the queue was my pick of laughable moments. in potentially biggest farce to hit F1 since indy 2005

monza 2.png
 
i dont see the issue. Magnussen stopped outside the pitlane, shouldve tried to roll in on the power it wasnt like it was far & they needed to do it for marshalls safety as you cant be pushing a car into a live pit lane because the cars will be flying into pits at around 100mph. hence the reason for pit lane closure

They could have rolled the Haas back behind the Armco where he parked it without needing a safety car - double waved yellows would have been enough. The safety car was a "NASCAR" safety car - done not really for safety but to bunch up the pack for the show. I've no problem with the penalty, just the contrived situation that led to it - again rolling the car back wouldn't have required a pit lane closure.
 
I love the smell of Hamilton bashing in the morning.

Some have suggested that it seemed slightly strange for Hamilton to be able to speak to the stewards in such a way, but the FIA is always open for discussions with competitors if they have issues they want to talk about.

As Masi said: "There's nothing stopping it, and thankfully we don't have too many red flags. The stewards, like everyone, have very much an open-door policy. If someone has got a question, they can ask."
 
BonningtonHamilton approaches an ‘SC’ board on the straight before Parabolica
Safety Car, Safety Car. Box box, Box box.
HamiltonGo hard tyre, hard tyre.
HamiltonHamilton passes the first red cross
Hard tyre, hard tyre.
BonningtonHamilton passes the second red cross
Copy Lewis, too late to change. We’ll be going to the medium.
BonningtonHamilton enter the pits
So stay out, pit lane entry should be closed.
HamiltonHamilton makes his pit stop and leaves
I don’t understand what you just said there.
BonningtonCopy Lewis it was a late message. It was pit lane entry was closed.
BonningtonHamilton rejoins the track
Back onto your delta.
HamiltonWas it closed?
BonningtonJust checking, we’re just checking when the message came up.
BonningtonSo just stay on that delta. People will be picking up the Safety Car now.
HamiltonThis is ridiculous. Is this for the car pulled over on the right that was completely out of the way?
BonningtonCopy Lewis, that’s the only incident on the track at the moment. Looks like they’re going to try to push it into the pit lane.
HamiltonI don’t think we’re on the right tyre.
BonningtonUnderstand Lewis. It should be OK. We think it should be pretty good.
HamiltonIs the pit lane closed?
BonningtonWe got the message on the screen but yes, it was. We’re just discussing.
BonningtonOK Lewis the pit entry is now open to expect a lot of cars to pit.
Hamilton[Unclear] So I have come in with the light on?
BonningtonAffirm, Lewis. We are under investigation but we’ll see what they come back with.
BonningtonSo when the race gets underway we’ll just have to get on with it and build as big a gap as possible.
HamiltonWatch the replay because I didn’t see any light.
BonningtonCopy Lewis, we are investigating.
BonningtonSo Safety Car is in this lap. Stroll is the car behind.
BonningtonStroll stayed out, he’s on 22-lap used soft tyres.
 
It's part of the British psyche.

They love an underdog and cheer when they start winning.

When they keep winning though, they're the worst ****s and everyone hopes they fail badly and take great pleasure when they do.
 
Bottas proved that he hasn’t got that killer instinct to to make Lewis Hamilton pay when he has a rare off day. Instead of winning the race he is meandering around in 5th, and ends up gaining 3 points on Hamilton.All this Bottas 2.0 3.0 4.0 rubbish is just media bull. He’s probably realised that it’s better to play 2nd fiddle to Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, than it is to be team leader in an inferior car.
 
Hamilton's comment about Verstappen said it all.

“To get seventh and fastest lap is still some good points considering I definitely didn’t think that was possible from 26 seconds behind the last car,” said Hamilton. “I’ll definitely take it and grateful obviously Max didn’t score any points. Not a huge loss today.”
 
olegg great post having that exchange & it makes something i havent said since 2016 Monaco GP. look incompetent

FB that might be bottas worst race as he was 5th on merit today no bad luck. but i noticed a change there is a tide turning on bottas. last week it was brundle patronizing him. 5 live podcast very critical, palmer believed hes been found out as a cautious driver & people know he will jump out the way. & few big names on social media. as the in joke goes i was ahead of my time in 2018. when i was being too tactless ;)
 
It's part of the British psyche.

They love an underdog and cheer when they start winning.

When they keep winning though, they're the worst ****s and everyone hopes they fail badly and take great pleasure when they do.
ill will say this is ive no idea why but im very guilty of this. Andy Murray, Frank Bruno, Mo Farah, Andrew Flintoff, Joe Johnson (in snooker) Lewis Hamilton (until 2017) Bradley Wiggins, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United, Leicester City, Darren Clarke even Japan v South Africa in 2015 RWC. it was Brighton but couldve been tokyo

im sure i read an article that this is 1 of the major things that confuses the foreign people. they cant understand why we actively cheer against the best people in the sport
 
Possibly because he'd get the entire silver machine behind him however, you would have to fancy Verstappen to pinch it from under their noses.

I have always said, if your name is on the WDC trophy you deserved to win it but in this circumstance, we're Bottas to win, I would have to work very hard to justify that statement.
 
just for context. & In the hypothetical world this would be the F1 Title Standings. it not good reading that in what some people believe it is 1 of the most best cars built. he's 6pts behind the red bull

Verstappen - 136
Bottas - 130
Stroll - 71
Norris - 65
Albon - 61
Gasly - 52
Leclerc - 52
Riccardo - 51
Sainz - 48
Perez - 44
Ocon - 40
Vettel - 22
Kyvat - 9
Hulkenberg - 8
Giovinazzi - 4
Magnussen - 2
Latifi - 2
Kimi - 1
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom