F1 Italian GP 2020 Winners And Losers

We all saw the late race tyre failures at the British Grand Prix and thought that’s all F1 would have in store for us in terms of unpredictability in 2020. The Italian Grand Prix at Monza totally blew that trend apart. Alpha Tauri-Honda (Red Bull Racing’s ‘junior team’) and Pierre Gasly took a shock win today. A penalty for Lewis Hamilton for pitting under a safety car period after the pitlane entry had been closed shook up the race. The stranded Haas-Ferrari of Kevin Magnussen at the pitlane entry prompted the closure of the pitlane for safety reasons. After that a heavy crash for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc prompted a red flag and a race restart. What looked to be an easy win for Hamilton and Mercedes after 27 laps of the 53 lap race turned into a race that no one could have seen coming.

Winners

Pierre Gasly - Being told he wasn’t good enough to drive for Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen to becoming the first French F1 race winner since 1996. It has been some journey for Pierre Gasly since he was demoted to Toro Rosso-Honda (now Alpha Tauri) after last year’s Belgian GP. He took a sensational second place finish in last year’s Brazilian GP, beating Lewis Hamilton to the finish line. And now he has yet another unforgettable memory with the team that was formerly Minardi. Gasly’s win was the first time a race was not won by a driver from Mercedes, Red Bull Racing or Ferrari since the 2013 Australian GP. It was also the first time since the 2012 Hungarian GP that no driver from these three teams stood on an F1 podium. The current turbo-hybrid era of F1 has not been the most competitive with Mercedes being utterly dominant. Neither of Hamilton’s two ‘rivals’ (Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen) made much ground on him in the drivers’ championship. People won’t really care much about that, however, as seeing a race that was not decided until the finish was a thrill in and of itself. 

Carlos Sainz - The ‘smooth operator’ fought hard to reel in Pierre Gasly to win his first F1 race and put the Renault powered McLaren team on top for the first time since 2012, when they used Mercedes power. Antonio Giovinazzi - the other driver to enter the pitlane after it had been closed - served his 10 second stop and go penalty to partially clear the way for Sainz’s advance to the front. The Spaniard also shot past Racing Point-BWT Mercedes’ Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen until it was just him and Gasly as contenders for the win. Having to balance tyre life and pushing to close the gap to Gasly to get within a second of the Frenchman decided the outcome of the race. Sainz only managed to get within a second of the Frenchman - which allowed him to use the Drag Reduction System - by the end of the penultimate lap of the race. By the final lap, he was finally within striking distance, but fell 0.415 seconds short of a win at the chequered flag. A win would have not only been great for McLaren, but for Sainz too who is unlikely to get such a chance when he heads to Ferrari next season. 

Lance Stroll - The Canadian lucked out when he got to make a ‘free’ pitstop to change his tyres when the race was red-flagged after Leclerc’s accident. If not for the restart, he may have ended up in the same boat as his teammate Sergio Perez who had dropped to the tail of the top ten after making his stop before the race stoppage. Luck plays a big part in motorsport, though, and Stroll was able to celebrate his second F1 career podium. He was also helped, in large part, by Valtteri Bottas’ inability to get past McLaren-Renault’s Lando Norris and attack the Canadian. 

McLaren - With 98 points, McLaren-Renault are now in third place in the constructors’ championship and 16 points ahead of Racing Point-BWT Mercedes. The ‘pink Mercedes’ was supposed to have given Racing Point to be the best of the rest after Mercedes and Red Bull. However, it is instead F1’s former dominant team that continue to rise and make their way back to the top of grand prix racing. A victory, their first since the 2012 Brazilian GP, would have been much sweeter, of course. But it is unlikely that the team won’t still be thrilled to see its cars finish second and fourth at Monza. 

Losers

Mercedes - For whatever reason, F1’s dominant team was not aware that the pitlane had been closed for safety reasons and they called Hamilton in to change his tyres under the safety car period. Only one other driver made that mistake, and it wasn’t Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton’s teammate didn’t really make much of the chance to close the gap to Hamilton in the championship, though. The Finn got ten points for fifth place but logic - given the speed of the Mercedes - suggested he should have at least made it to the podium. Instead he remained stuck behind Lando Norris. Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo - running second after the restart - was passed by almost everyone on track. Raikkonen’s teammate Giovinazzi served a stop and go penalty like Hamilton. That aside, Bottas showed little sign of being able to make progress on his own. 

Red Bull Racing-Honda - Monza is not a particularly strong venue for Red Bull Racing who make cars for circuits with a lot of medium and/or high speed corners.. Nevertheless, scoring zero points was not expected. Max Verstappen was sub par at both the start and restart of the 53-lap race and Alexander Albon barely looked like he was in contention to score any points. Red Bull Racing preemptively retired Verstappen’s car fearing an engine failure. Albon could only finish 15th...out of 16 finishers. 

Ferrari - Brake failure for Sebastian Vettel after six laps. Charles Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari on lap 24 at the Parabolica and crashed heavily. Prior to that, of course, Ferrari had only qualified 13th and 17th and didn’t have a hope in hell to score any points in the race without a lot of luck. Well, they did get luck, but not the good kind. The double retirement for Ferrari has them sixth in the constructors’ standings. Only 14 points ahead of race winners Alpha Tauri-Honda.