2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix highlights

Introduction

 

Max Verstappen won the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix under the Safety Car, with pole-sitter Charles Leclerc finishing runner-up as Red Bull denied Ferrari a home victory at Monza.

Click here to subscribe to our print edition!

Marco Tronchetti Provera – CEO and Vice Chairman, Pirelli:

We are proud to play a prominent part in this celebration of Italian automotive technology and know-how at our home Grand Prix, on the occasion of Monza’s centenary and Pirelli’s 150 years.

As well as also producing motorsport tyres at the cutting edge of technology for nearly 250 championships worldwide, we sustain culture and support the arts through Pirelli HangarBicocca in particular, so Pirelli wanted to mark this occasion with a unique trophy that has direct relevance to the pinnacle of world motorsport. Many thanks to Patrick Tuttofuoco and Pirelli HangarBicocca for making it happen through an iconic artwork that perfectly links past and present.

How the race was won:

It took Red Bull’s Max Verstappen just 12 laps to rise from P7 on the grid to the race lead after Ferrari’s poleman Charles Leclerc pitted under a virtual safety car. They were two of five drivers to start on the P Zero Red soft tyres, with the other 15 starting on the P Zero Yellow medium. Verstappen pitted for his only scheduled stop on lap 25, underlining the low degradation of the soft, before re-emerging in second on the medium and taking the lead once more when Leclerc made his second stop. A safety car close to the end triggered another round of stops, but this did not alter the overall classification, with the race ending under the safety car.

The alternative strategy:

There was a variety of different strategies seen today, with eight different strategies in the top 10. While the winning strategy was likely to have been a one-stopper (without the safety car), Leclerc committed to a two-stopper using soft and medium, while Mercedes driver George Russell was the only podium finisher to use the P Zero White hard as part of his run plan.

 

2022 Formula 1 Dutch GP Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Country	Team	Time	Points	Overall
1.	1	Max Verstappen	Netherlands	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:20:27.511	25	335
2.	16	Charles Leclerc	Monaco	Scuderia Ferrari	+2.446s	18	219
3.	63	George Russell	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+3.405s	15	197
4.	55	Carlos Sainz	Spain	Scuderia Ferrari	+5.061s	12	187
5.	44	Lewis Hamilton	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+5.380s	10	168
6.	11	Sergio Perez	Mexico	Red Bull Racing Honda	+6.091s	9	210
7.	4	Lando Norris	Great Britain	Mclaren Racing	+6.207s	6	88
8.	10	Pierre Gasly	France	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+6.396s	4	22
9.	45	Nyck De Vries	Netherlands	Williams Racing	+7.122s	2	2
10.	24	Zhou Guanyu	China	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+7.910s	1	6
11.	31	Esteban Ocon	France	Alpine F1 Team	+8.323s	0	66
12.	47	Mick Schumacher	Germany	Haas F1 Team	+8.549s	0	12
13.	77	Valtteri Bottas	Finland	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	46
14.	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Japan	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0	11
15.	6	Nicholas Latifi	Canada	Williams Racing	+1 lap	0	0
16.	20	Kevin Magnussen	Denmark	Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	0	22
17.	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Australia	McLaren Racing	DNF	0	19
18.	18	Lance Stroll	Canada	Aston Martin F1 Team	DNF	1	11
19.	14	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Alpine F1 Team	DNF	8	59
20.	5	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Aston Martin F1 Team	DNF	0	20

2022 Constructor Standings

Pos	Picture	Team	Points
1.		Red Bull Racing	759
1.		Scuderia Ferrari	554
3.		Mercedes-AMG F1 Team	515
4.		Alpine F1 Team	173
5.		McLaren Racing	159
6.		Alfa Romeo Racing	55
7.		Aston Martin F1 Team	55
8.		Haas F1 Team	37
9.		Scuderia AlphaTauri	35
10.		Williams Racing	8

Here are the team-by-team highlights:

Red Bull Racing

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen celebrated his fifth win in a row with a dominant drive to victory from 7th place to the grid in the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, while team-mated Sergio Pérez advanced to 6th place at the finish from a 13th place start despite a race-long brake problem that meant he was unable to push to his maximum.

Verstappen had qualified 2nd for the race but took a five-place grid penalty for receiving new engine parts that pushed him back to the fourth row in 7th. However, it was clear that the Dutch driver had the pace to win the instant the lights went out. He made up two positions in the first corner and was on the tail of leading duo Charles Leclerc and George Russell by Lap 4.

From there, it was just a matter of time before Verstappen took the lead from Leclerc, which he did during a Virtual Safety Car caused by the failure of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin. From there, Verstappen never looked like relinquishing the lead and crossed the finish line under a Safety Car scenario 2.446s clear of the Ferrari driver to win his first-ever Grand Prix at Monza, a fifth consecutive success and his 11th victory of the season.

With Monza’s victory, Verstappen has now extended his lead in the Formula One Drivers’ Championship to 116 points over Leclerc, with Pérez still in 3rd and just 9 points behind the Ferrari driver.

With six races to go and 164 points available, Verstappen now has a mathematical chance of wrapping up the 2022 Formula One World Championship at the next Grand Prix in Singapore on October 2.

Max Verstappen

For the first lap, I had to be careful, but we had a good start and were clean through the first chicane, and for me, that was the most important thing, to stay out of trouble. Then we were very quickly back up to P3 and even into P2. Then I could set my sights on Charles and see we had better tyre degradation. Overall, if you look at the pace of our car this weekend, especially today, I think we were strong. The pace was good on every tyre, and we were comfortably the quickest on the track. You have to try and be as perfect as you can be, and on most occasions this season, we have been pretty good.

Sergio Pérez

My race got compromised fairly early when my front right brake disk got super-hot and was basically on fire, so we had to make the decision to pitstop. During the first laps on the hard, I couldn’t get any temperature into the tyres because I had to lift and coast. I was losing a lot of lap time, and my first stint was compromised. That affected my whole race, and I had to massively manage my brakes. It was critical at that point because I could have lost them and had to retire the car. In the end, we boxed, thinking we could get Lewis back on the softs, but unfortunately, the Safety Car meant we didn’t get the chance. I had better tyres than Lewis, so it would have been good to get the restart, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t a good weekend for me, and we have plenty to do. I’m back on the simulator tomorrow and trying to get back into a good rhythm straight away.

Christian Horner – Team Principal & CEO

We would have liked to have seen the race play out today. We certainly didn’t want to win under a Safety Car. We believe there was enough time to get the race going, but the Safety Car picked up George Russell, which delayed proceedings. Despite that, we believe we had enough pace in hand on the one-stop strategy. Checo had to pit early because there was a flat spot, a lot of vibration, and then a bit of debris got into the ducts, which caused a small fire, but his recovery from there was excellent. Fastest lap for Checo, too, so essential points for him and the team. Max was yet again so impressive. Even if they had the fastest car, I’m not sure if anyone could stop Max today.

The whole team has been performing at such a high level all season, and our performance all weekend has been brilliant. We know we compromised quali slightly yesterday, but it paid off. More challenges lie ahead with Singapore and beyond, so we look forward to that. Ultimately it was a sombre race for obvious reasons, but we are happy we could bring home the win with Her Majesty’s insignia on the nose of the car, and we dedicate the victory to the life and memory of HRH, Queen Elizabeth II.

Red Bull Racing Honda best pictures:

Scuderia Ferrari

 

Scuderia Ferrari leaves Monza with second place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and a fourth from Carlos Sainz. However, at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, there’s a clear feeling that it could have been an even better afternoon if the race had not ended behind the Safety Car, which meant that neither Prancing Horse driver had the opportunity to mount one final attacking move.

Nevertheless, this weekend will still go down in history with the visit of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella and for the Giallo Modena yellow theme which Ferrari sported on its cars all weekend and on the mechanics’ team kit today. It was a celebration of 75 years of the company by means of a colour that is an integral part of its history and honouring one hundred years of one of the most legendary motor racing circuits. Another important feature was that an entire crowd was again allowed in, with a record number of 337,000 in attendance over the weekend.

On the attack. The team adopted a particularly aggressive approach with both drivers. Leclerc started from pole position on Soft tyres and made the most of the Virtual Safety Car called when Sebastian Vettel parked on track on lap 12 to pit for new tyres, thus going for a different strategy to Max Verstappen, who would be able to count on less tyre degradation. When the Safety Car came out in the closing stages, it seemed that Charles might have a chance over a few laps to attack Verstappen. But that scenario vanished when the race ended behind the Safety Car, thus freezing the order.

Carlos. It was Carlos who came off worst because of the Safety Car as, after carrying out almost 20 overtaking moves from eighteenth on the grid, he had only just fitted a set of Soft tyres and was closing on third-placed George Russell, who was running Hard tyres. The Spaniard was closing at the rate of over a second per lap and would have caught the Englishman on the final lap. When the Safety Car came out, the team called him in for another set of new Softs so he could attack Russell on his worn tyres, but Sainz had to settle for fourth, an impressive improvement of 14 places from where he started.

Short break. With the Italian Grand Prix completed, the World Championship bids farewell to Europe and takes a short break before the next round in Singapore, which, on 2^nd October, makes a return to the calendar after a two-year absence.

Charles Leclerc #16

Monza is always incredible. Starting from pole, I did want to take the win. However, that’s not how it went today. Seeing our Tifosi under the podium made it a lot better.

Our pace was good, and we must keep in mind that our expectations for this track were not very high. We worked a lot throughout the practice sessions to secure the pole, which was a pleasant surprise. We have made some positive progress and were more competitive this weekend, so I am looking forward to being back racing in Singapore.

Carlos Sainz #55

TA good race! I felt comfortable right from the start, overtaking cars nearly every lap and climbing to P4 very early on.
After pitting for the Soft tyre, I was closing the gap to Russell quickly, and I would have had a chance to battle with him for P3 at the end. Even when the Safety Car came out, I would have had a great opportunity at the restart with my new set of Softs, but unfortunately, the race finished as it did, and neither scenario happened.

I’m happy with the performance and the comeback, but looking at our pace, I was hoping to be on the podium in front of all the Tifosi. Thanks to everyone for such excellent support today. We will continue to push until the end of the year!

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal & Managing Director

I believe our performance this weekend was better than that reflected in the final outcome. After a great qualifying in front of all our Tifosi in the race, we tried to make the most of every opportunity, opting to be aggressive with both drivers. Overall, finishing second and fourth is a good result, although there is a sense of regret not bringing home the win after starting from the pole. However, today, Max (Verstappen) was simply quicker than us. Regarding our performance, there is an awareness that we have made progress compared to the last few races. However, it’s not enough, as there is still work to do when it comes to our performance on Sunday and tyre degradation.

There was a significant moment just before the race when the President of the Republic visited our garage. Sergio Mattarella represents all Italians and Italy, and it was nice to see the mechanics welcome him with a round of applause as a mark of thanks for all his efforts and dedication to our country.

Scuderia Ferrari best pictures:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

 

A solid podium finish for George and a strong P5 for Lewis, from the back of the grid, after the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

George drove a solid race to finish P3 and claim his seventh podium finish of the 2022 season. Lewis made a composed charge from P19 to score a P5 finish and achieve a strong damage limitation finish. The team is now 35 points behind Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, with six races remaining.

Lewis Hamilton

This morning, the team said anywhere between sixth and fourth was possible. That always feels like a stretch when you’re looking ahead at the race – but I had a lot of fun working my way to P5. The beginning was a struggle, with a heavy fuel load and the tyres overheating in traffic, but then we started to make progress as the race unfolded – and I had some fun after the stops working through the traffic. In the end, we stayed out to keep the position on track, and it might have been a tough battle if the race restarted, so I’m glad it finished the way it did! Overall, we knew this was going to be a tough weekend with the engine penalty, so I’m pleased to come away with a P5 finish and to have pulled everything out of the car. This wasn’t our best track, but we did everything we could as a team, and I hope we have some more vital weekends ahead before the end of the season.

George Russell

Unfortunately, this weekend we were not where we wanted to be as a team – but as I said on the radio, it doesn’t matter if we are fast or slow. We keep getting these podium finishes. Over this triple header, two of the three weekends have been very difficult, and I’ve still come away with two podiums and a P4, so we’ve got to be satisfied with that. Looking at today’s race, we had to do something different if we wanted to fight with Max and Charles, so we went for the Hard tyre at the stop, but they were just too quick. That’s all we could do in our position. Now we have some weeks to recharge, regroup as a team and prepare for the final part of this season, so we can take every opportunity that comes our way.

Toto Wolff

We were clearly the third fastest team today, so third and fifth positions were probably the maximum we could expect. Although the gaps were not as significant as in Spa, this was clearly a track that didn’t suit us, so it was a question of maximising our result and doing damage limitation with Lewis. It was enjoyable to watch him fight through the pack – he looked a little bit stuck at the beginning, then once the tyres came together, he was very quick. As for George, he did everything we asked of him, and it was another faultless drive. Looking at the championship, we are 35 points behind with six races to go, and we just need to do our best every single week and see where we land after Abu Dhabi. But we also know that our ultimate target was 30 seconds up the road today, and that is the real gap we need to catch up. Finally, a word for Nyck: he did the absolute maximum today, jumping into a car he had barely driven in FP3 and then scoring two points. It showed exactly what he is capable of.

Mercedes-AMG F1 Team best pictures:

McLaren Racing

 

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, and Team Principal Andreas Seidl after the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

Lando had an issue at the start, which caused him to drop to P7, moving Daniel into P3. Verstappen managed to squeeze passed Daniel at the end of the opening lap heading into the first chicane, while Lando regained one position at the same spot, overtaking Alonso.

Lando exchanged positions with Alonso twice more, ultimately staying ahead, as Sainz managed to make his way through the field and ahead of both McLaren drivers. Daniel switched from Mediums to Hards on lap 19, emerging in P12 and avoiding the undercut from Gasly. After creating a buffer, Lando pitted on lap 35, but a slow stop meant he exited the pit lane in traffic and lost positions to Hamilton and Gasly.

Lando quickly claimed back positions on his new Soft tyres, zooming past Gasly and Ricciardo, who were both on older Hard tyres. Daniel, unfortunately, suffered an oil leak and was forced to retire on lap 46. The Safety Car was deployed as the marshalls rushed to remove the car from the track. Lando pitted for new Softs, but the race finished under the Safety Car meaning Lando came home in P7.

Lando Norris

A good day. Very happy with the result in the end. The pace was very strong today. We should have finished P5 or P6, but we lost several positions to an issue at the start, which compromised our race. Tough, especially on a day when we could have scored some really good points. However, there are a lot of positives coming out of this weekend. These are some intense things to try to carry on to next time. So, we’ll keep working hard and try to maintain this momentum for the next few races.

Daniel Ricciardo

It was nice to start at the front and get a decent start. Lando looked like he had a poor start so I got ahead of him, and it was nice to be in third there, but I saw quickly Max (Verstappen) was right behind me, and he was obviously on another level. I was just trying to set a rhythm in fourth, but we weren’t quick enough. I felt like I was doing an excellent job holding off Gasly but didn’t have much more to show. It was a busy race, trying to hold on, do what I could and then yeah, I felt like we got a little bit of a rhythm on the Hards with 10-15 laps to go, but then the engine just switched off out of Turn Six. I had to pull over straight away because it was stuck in gear, so that I couldn’t roll to a safe place. It would have been nice to get some points, but it wasn’t meant to be today.

Andreas Seidl

Mixed feelings today in Monza. The positive side is that the pace we had this weekend and throughout the race was very encouraging, particularly given warm weather and a low-downforce configuration haven’t favoured us in the past. On the other hand, a retirement for Daniel is disappointing, costing us valuable points in the Constructors’ Championship after he had a very strong weekend, both yesterday in Qualifying and also today in the race. P7 for Lando confirms us as the fourth-fastest team this weekend.

“That comes from hard work from the entire team, here and back at home, together with our colleagues at Mercedes HPP. A break now of two weekends before we head to Singapore. While work on next year’s car continues at pace, in parallel, we’ll use this time to analyse all the data we’ve collected over the triple-header and see how we can take further steps with the car as we head into the final six races of the season. We go again.

McLaren Racing best pictures:

Alpine F1 Team

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team left without a reward from the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon finished eleventh and Fernando Alonso retired from today’s race in Monza.

Fernando retired on lap 31 with a suspected water pressure issue while running inside the points. The team remains in the fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship heading into the flyaway part of the season, which begins in Singapore in three weeks’ time.

 

Fernando Alonso

It was a challenging race today, and we seemed to find it difficult to keep up with the cars ahead of us on the straights. We then had to retire the car with a suspected water pressure issue, but we still need to investigate why this happened. We were fighting inside the top ten, and I was hoping we could see the chequered flag inside the points, but it wasn’t the case today. It’s been a long three weeks; the team has worked very hard and deserves a short break. The good news is that we are still ahead in the fight with McLaren for fourth, so we go to Singapore with the aim to be in the top ten again.

Esteban Ocon

It was a tricky race today, and obviously, it’s disappointing to finish just one position away from the points in the end. The car was performing well, and we had a good race pace, which we weren’t able to show with traffic ahead. We’ll refocus and maximise everything for the remaining races from Singapore and onwards. I’m looking forward to a little break to recover from the triple header and fully prepare for the flyaway races, where we’ll look to get both cars back into the points in our fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal

We’re certainly disappointed not to have scored points at today’s Italian Grand Prix, with Esteban narrowly missing out in eleventh and Fernando retiring from the race while in a competitive position. It looks like we lost water pressure on his car, which meant he had to stop, and we’ll do our regular investigations to find out the cause and the solution for the future. On Esteban’s side, he put himself into a strong position during his second stint – lapping one second a lap quicker than those ahead – and would have been in contention for points before the final Safety Car at the end. It’s a pity the race did not end under a green flag, and I’m sure we can find better ways to improve the spectacle of racing in these kinds of scenarios. As a team, we should reflect on the positives, and if we look across the triple header, we’ve come away with 26 points, which is a reasonable effort and very valuable for the championship. We’ll come back stronger for Singapore at the end of the month when we have further upgrades coming to the car.

Alpine F1 Team best pictures:

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN brought home a well-deserved point from the Italian Grand Prix as Zhou Guanyu finished 10th on a busy afternoon of racing. Team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, saw his race compromised after suffering damage at the first corner and dropping to last but recovered to finish 13th at the chequered flag.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77)

We had a good pace today, so it’s disappointing not to be in the points: in the end, my race was compromised at turn one when I was hit from behind, and I hit the car ahead. I had damage to the front wing, having lost the endplate, and then the car went into anti-stall: before I could get back going, I had lost a lot of ground, and I was last. The car was clearly good, as I was able to make a decent recovery, but the damage still made it quite tricky: at least the team got the point with Zhou, so we have something to show for today. I’m looking forward to the mini-break ahead of us now before we go full push for the end of the season. We know we can score points, and I want to finish the year in a more vital place than we are now.

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24)

I am really happy with today’s result and with the work that has been done in the past few weeks; it’s been a challenging journey since Montreal because we were very strong at the beginning of the season, and then our performances had a dip; but being back in the points today is a fantastic feeling, a great result both for the team and for Alfa Romeo. We knew we had a chance today, our pace was good, and it allowed us to be in the fight with the other teams. We have a couple of weeks off now, which will give us time to rest after the triple-header and, above all, analyze what worked this weekend and what went wrong in the previous races, and come prepared and motivated ahead of the next ones. I am looking forward to the Asian double-header, as the races will be closer to home, and several fans will be coming to support me.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

We had a positive weekend as a team, and the point we brought home with Zhou is a good reward. We had pace from Friday onwards, including in Q1, where Zhou was in P6, but we still had to get the job done today. We fought well in the midfield, even though overtaking was hard, and didn’t really make mistakes with Zhou so we could maximise our returns from the race. Unfortunately, Valtteri’s day was compromised by the damage he suffered at the start, but the key takeaway here is our performance: if we carry it over to the next rounds, we can aim to bring home more points to our name.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team best pictures:

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, fans in the grandstand during the 9th round of the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship, from September 9 to 11, 2022 on the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, in Monza, Italy 

Haas F1 Team

 

Haas F1 Team finished with Mick Schumacher 12th and Kevin Magnussen 16th at the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Schumacher started from 17th position on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and managed a long first stint before coming in on lap 33 of 53, taking on Red soft tires. Schumacher emerged in 18th place but passed several rivals and was up to 12th when a Safety Car was deployed on lap 47 following Daniel Ricciardo’s stoppage.

Unfortunately, the lengthy time taken to retrieve Ricciardo’s stricken car meant racing could not resume, denying Schumacher the chance to attack drivers further up the order and fight potentially for a points-paying position at the checkered.

Magnussen took the start from 16th on the grid, also on medium tires, but was struck by Valtteri Bottas into the first chicane on the opening lap. The impact caused damage to the diffuser on Magnussen’s VF-22, costing him performance, while stewards chose to penalize the Dane for then leaving the track and gaining an advantage despite being the wronged party in the incident.

Magnussen came in on lap 24 for White hard tires and boxed once more on lap 48 for softs in anticipation of the restart that never came. Magnussen finished the race in 16th position.

Haas F1 Team holds seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship on 34 points.

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20

I had contact at the beginning of the race in Turn 1 – I got hit from behind, and the diffuser got damaged – and then from there, we were slow. The damage was too much, and I don’t know precisely the impact it would’ve had, but nonetheless, it wasn’t a great day. You always hope that the next race is going to be better. Singapore looks more suitable for our car, so I’m looking forward to it.

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47

Considering I haven’t driven much this weekend and had a difficult qualifying, to be close to the points – I think mentally already being in the points – was a strong recovery. The Williams was super quick on the straights, even pulling away in the DRS, so I had to get the move done somehow, and it was a decent one. Overall, we’re really happy about the performance we’ve shown, and we really were on a good course as everybody else was struggling on their tires, and we were on a very good tire.

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

The thing about this race is; that we got done by the officials. Kevin had an incident at the start where he got shoved off, and his diffuser was damaged. He got a penalty because he couldn’t stay on the racing line, but with the rear wheels up, it’s challenging to stay on the racing line – I don’t think the penalty is appropriate. I don’t think I need to discuss the end of the race because what happened, happened, and it wasn’t handled how it should’ve been. Elsewhere, Mick did a fantastic job to get P12, considering his lack of time on track this weekend and our expected pace at this circuit.

Haas F1 Team best pictures:

Scuderia AlphaTauri

 

It was a day of mixed results for Scuderia AlphaTauri at the 2022 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, where Pierre Gasly backed up his qualifying solid result of 5th and showed strong pace throughout the race to finish inside the points in 8th place, but Yuki Tsunoda was unable to make much progress from his back-row starting position and finished in 14th.

Pierre Gasly

Looking at the result, finishing behind the top three teams is the best we could have done, and I’m very happy to be collecting points again. It was a slightly frustrating race. I think I’ll have nightmares about Ricciardo’s rear wing for the next few nights, we tried a few different things to try and pass him, and our overall performance was competitive, but we just didn’t have the pace to get past the Mclarens today. We’ll now prepare for Singapore, know what we need to work on and how to improve, and aim to continue finishing in the points.

Yuki Tsunoda

Starting last on the grid was always going to be difficult today, but I think the start of the race was good for me, and I was able to make some overtakes. I struggled with the pace on the Hards, so we need to go away and look at our long-run pace and try and improve this for the upcoming races.

Jody Egginton – Technical Director

It’s good to come away with points today, with Pierre driving a solid race. At the same time, it’s frustrating that with Yuki, we couldn’t turn the strong performance he’s shown here into a representative grid position and a better fight for points due to penalties. Regarding Pierre’s race, the fight with the McLarens was good, but with two against one and Ricciardo proving tricky to pass, the McLaren strategy created some breathing space for Norris, which we could not recover, meaning we came home in P8 with Pierre. In summary, it’s good to be scoring points again, but we need to get both cars up there to improve our Constructors’ position, so obviously, this is one of the critical areas to be focused on.

Franz Tost – Team Principal

The fans and the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of this historic track didn’t deserve the race to finish the way it did today, as it would’ve been fantastic to see a fight on the last few laps. Unfortunately, as Ricciardo stopped so late, in accordance with the regulations, we had to finish the race behind the Safety Car. As for us, our race was reasonably good. Pierre started from the fifth position and finished eighth. He struggled a little bit with understeer on the Hards, but generally speaking – and also considering the performance of the cars in front of us – this was the best possible finishing position we could achieve today.

Yuki started from the back of the grid. Therefore it was not so easy to overtake cars. Nevertheless, he managed to do this well. We called him in during the Safety Car for the Softs, as we thought he would have a good chance with the new tyres if the race was restarted, but unfortunately, this was not the case. He could only finish in P14, but in general, Yuki had a good race weekend. Overall, we scored four points here, which is positive as we have closed the gap to Haas, so we now need to keep this momentum for Singapore in a few weeks and until the end of the season.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Team best pictures:

Aston Martin Formula One Team

 

The team came away from a tough Monza weekend with no points after both drivers had to retire from the race.

Despite strong starting positions on the grid and running in the top 10 early on, the double retirement meant a disappointing end to the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Lance Stroll

We had some issues with the car, so we decided to retire to look after the engine. It is a shame that we were not able to be more in the mix this weekend, but that is sometimes how it is in F1.

We have to look at why it was so tricky for us on this track and see what we can learn from that. I think we will be more competitive in Singapore, which is an entirely different circuit to here, in a couple of weekends.

Sebastian Vettel

Unfortunately, we had an issue with the ERS, and we had to stop the car. I noticed a drop in power beforehand, and then I was told to pull off the circuit.

Overall, this was just a tough weekend for us. I was hopeful for a decent race, but we struggled for pace and then had the problem that forced our retirement.

The atmosphere was fantastic, however, so a huge thank you to the fans for their support this weekend.

Mike Krack, Team Principal

Lance battled hard in the early laps, running as high as tenth, but we did not quite have the pace on this track layout, and as the race progressed, it became clear that points were out of reach. With 14 laps to go, we retired Lance’s car as a precaution to save engine mileage.

Sebastian’s race was relatively short when he was forced to retire on lap 11 with a suspected ERS issue. He was losing power before smoke appeared, and we asked him to stop the car.

The focus moves to Singapore at the end of this month – a circuit where we expect a more complete showing.

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team best pictures:

Williams Racing

 

Dutchman Nyck de Vries wrapped up a whirlwind 48 hours by coming home in P9 on his Formula One debut, picking up two more points for the team.

Nyck de Vries

I’m feeling really good about today and think it was crucial to get the start right and a clean run into lap one. I got into a DRS train which helped to stick with the pack. However, I think the pace was really good, and we made a good call on strategy and tyre management.

The driver of the Day makes me so happy, and I’m glad and thankful that I got given the opportunity, and I grabbed it with both hands. It was a great day for the team, and whilst grid penalties played in our favour, ultimately, we did a great race, so I’m very happy for everyone in the team and for myself.

Hopefully, I will get a shot next year, but this is a dream come true, and I’m very impressed with what we’ve done on short notice, so I’ll enjoy it now.

Nicholas Latifi

[It was] A very tough race. I was compromised at the start being sandwiched between a few cars and trying to avoid damage. A lot of cars cut the first corner without any penalties. Unfortunately, we had a slow pit stop, leaving us with very little to play for in the race. The aim was to maintain our position, and we had a fighting chance, but it wasn’t meant to be. We were fast in a straight line but struggled with braking and carrying speed through the corners. We’ll look to bounce back in Singapore in a few weeks.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:

Nyck drove an excellent race today and could defend when required while keeping constant pressure on the cars ahead. We gave him an ambitious strategy which would push his Soft and Medium tyres to the limit. The late safety car offered some protection in the final laps and also helped him manage a hot front brake disc. However, he got himself into that position by driving exceptionally well, managing the start and the pit stop expertly and fighting hard using a car and setup that he had only driven for 34 laps yesterday.

He did no high fuel running prior to the laps to the grid and had never driven an entire stint on these tyres in racing conditions. The work that he and his team put in overnight was excellent, and he deserved this result.

Nicholas had a tricky start to the race, losing out at the first chicane before mounting a good recovery showing decent pace on the Hard tyre to get back into the fight with Stroll and Tsunoda, Schumacher and Bottas. Unfortunately, he couldn’t recover all the losses from the opening laps and finished in 15th.

It was good to complete this triple header with another points finish, and we can now enjoy some rest before we head to Singapore for the first of the flyaway races that will end the 2022 season.

Williams F1 Team best pictures: