Norris: 20 km/h faster on the straights
Lando Norris says McLaren can now go 20 km/h faster on the Monza straights compared to its 2023 car. The Briton secured pole in Italy, showing a strong improvement on last year.
At Monza in 2023, McLaren qualified seventh and ninth, which he described before the start of the weekend as “probably one of our worst races last year”.
“If you compare this year to last year, we are 20 km/h or so faster on the straights,” said Norris in the press conference after qualifying. “That's quite a lot. Last year we were pretty shocking on the straights.
“It was a bit of a surprise, but it shows the difference between not being prepared and being prepared for a race – where we were last year and where we are now.”
But let me just browse through the results… Top speed in 2024: 349 km/h. Top speed in 2023: 346.8 km/h. Not quite 20 km/h.
But hey, there are other measuring points where you can be faster. 319.3/325.6/338.1 are given there for this year. 2023: 312.9/322.9/339.3.
Sauber: Back on the last row
Yesterday things were looking pretty good, but today Sauber is back down to earth – or at the bottom of the table. Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou will occupy the last two starting positions on Sunday.
Bottas: “I feel like we can do more today, so I'm disappointed to only finish P19: the first lap I did was pretty decent and with the improved track I had every opportunity to get into Q2, only the yellow flag at the end of Q1 took that chance away from us.”
Zhou: “Today's qualifying was quite frustrating because we know we could have achieved a little more than we did. My final lap started promisingly, with an improvement compared to my normal runs – until the cars in front of me went off the track, forcing me to lift and affecting my lap.
Tsunoda: Upgrade hopefully not a downgrade
Yuki Tsunoda is struggling with his Q1 exit, which is also attributed to an incorrect set-up. The Japanese says that he came to Monza with high expectations because his Racing Bulls team brought a new upgrade.
“But it seems we didn't make it work. I don't know. I just hope it's not a downgrade,” he says. “I just didn't have the pace and was just sliding around all week.” His teammate Daniel Ricciardo had a similar experience.
“Whatever I do just makes it worse and I keep sliding around,” he says angrily. But maybe there is another explanation: “I don't know, maybe I'm just bad…” says Tsunoda.
George Russell: Muddled through to Q3
George Russell was very happy with third place, considering that he lost a lot of time in the first practice session due to Andrea Kimi Antonelli's accident. After the third practice session, Russell felt he was affected by the aftermath of Antonelli's accident and was not comfortable making too many changes to optimise his set-up for qualifying and the race.
“It's been a weekend of a lot of ups and downs. Of course I missed a lot yesterday, which set me back quite a bit,” he says. “We hadn't made many changes from FP3 to qualifying, because that was my first proper session on track. Q1 and Q2 were very, very chaotic; I wasn't confident, didn't feel good in the car.
“I kind of fought my way through the session and then suddenly managed to get into the sweet spot for Q3. My two laps saw us in third or fourth place, and we were third. I'm very happy with that result too.”
Colapinto: Mistake prevents better debut
Franco Colapinto finished the first Formula 1 qualifying session in 18th place. A mistake in the second Lesmo corner prevented a better result. “That's a shame,” said the Williams rookie angrily. After all, the third practice session looked as if he could perhaps be more competitive.
“I built on that and tried to understand the car better. Unfortunately, I made this mistake that cost me a lot,” he said. “But I think that's just part of the process. I have to keep working and look forward. Let's see how it goes in the race tomorrow. It's going to be a long one, but I'm looking forward to understanding the car and everything better.”
He said of the mistake: “I felt a little understeer, I was pretty much at the limit on the lap, and at that moment I sent two tires off the track. And I couldn't catch them anymore.”
“So it was a small mistake that obviously cost me a lot. Maybe a chance to get into Q2, it was only a tenth. It's a shame too, but it's part of it. And I think I'll get a lot stronger soon.”
Norris: Didn’t expect double pole
Lando Norris says McLaren did not expect a double pole before qualifying. “We looked as good as everyone else, no more, no less. That's why I expected a difficult qualifying,” he says.
“It wasn't the cleanest qualifying, it's difficult to put the lap together here. The gaps are very close and you try to give it your all, but you can also pay the price for it. It's about risk vs. reward in many corners.” But we seem to have made good progress with a few changes before qualifying.
The lap itself didn't feel like a perfect lap. “I tried to make up for some of the braking in turn 1. However, I took turn 1 so well that I crashed into the curb of turn 2 because I turned in a little too early,” he explains.
“I was one and a half tenths behind after just the first chicane. I gained a few hundredths in every corner.
“It didn't feel nearly as good as my round last weekend. But it's a nice feeling.”
Hülkenberg: Finally back in Q3
For Nico Hülkenberg, qualifying in Monza was a success. For the first time in four races, the German made it into Q3 with his Haas. He had last managed this in Silverstone. His conclusion at Heaven: “Not quite perfect, but still happy to have made it into Q3 again,” he says.
“I think we can build on that tomorrow. We've done well so far this weekend. Now we need to keep it that way tomorrow and just stay clean.”
He was pleased that he was finally able to just work with the car and make constant improvements. “The conditions are much more consistent than in Zandvoort, just dry and just hot. That helps,” says Hülkenberg. “I think the package works well.”
And what does that mean for the race? “Okay, we're starting in tenth place. Of course, that's always the minimum you want to have and defend,” he says. “I think the fast cars are all ahead of us and the top eight are pretty much booked, unless something extraordinary happens. We'll definitely have to fight with Williams and Aston.”
10,000 Euro fine for McLaren
And while we're at it, McLaren has to pay a fine of 10,000 euros for letting Oscar Piastri drive out of the garage into Max Verstappen's path during qualifying. McLaren admitted that it was a team error for not paying enough attention to Verstappen – so the team was penalized.
The reasoning in full:
The driver of car 81 stated that when leaving the pit lane he looked as best he could for cars coming down the pit lane, but noticed that the view from the cockpit is very limited due to the angle of the car. He stated that he therefore had to rely on the signal from his mechanic and when he received the signal to leave he moved into the passing lane. He did not see car 1 until it appeared in his rear view mirrors in the passing lane.
The McLaren team representative admitted that the mechanic had misjudged the situation and that the mistake lay with the team.
The driver of car 1 stated that he saw the mechanic wave car 81 out and that he considered this a “very optimistic” move.
The Red Bull representative stressed that the mechanic should focus on the movement of the cars in the pit lane and Race Direction noted from the CCTV video of the pit lane that in this case the focus was on car 81 rather than the cars in the pit lane. Having identified precedents for this type of infringement, Race Direction considers that this infringement warrants a more severe penalty than previously imposed and therefore the above penalty is imposed.
