Mercedes excel even without `Party Mode’ but it was Pierre Gasly’s race day
Race Analysis: 2020 Italian GP
Pierre Gasly took a surprise but well-deserved win for Alpha Tauri at the iconic Monza circuit as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll completed an unexpected podium in the Italian Grand Prix.
By Malhaar Khaladkar
New Delhi, 7 Sept 2020: Prior to this weekend, FIA had issued a technical directive (TD) stating that all teams must use the same engine mode from start of the qualifying to the end of the race. This effectively banned `party mode’ during qualifying for the power unit (PU) manufacturers. Party mode is the most powerful PU mode which is run over one lap to give maximum power. It cannot be run constantly as it damages the engine over a period of time.
The TD did not seem to affect Mercedes as even without ‘party mode’ they locked out the front row, Lewis Hamilton taking 6th pole position of the year. Nearest non-Mercedes car was of Carlos Sainz in the McLaren, 0.8s behind, with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez alongside in P4. Max Verstappen could only qualify as high as P5, with the second McLaren of Lando Norris is P6. Daniel Ricciardo’s was the only Renault car in top 10, ahead of Lance Stroll in P8 and Alex Albon in P9. Pierre Gasly rounded off the top 10, his teammate Daniil Kvyat put his AlphaTauri in P11. Esteban Ocon in Renault was P12 and behind was Charles Leclerc with what was the worst qualifying for Ferrari at Monza in recent years. His teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to make it out of Q1, to start P17. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was P14, behind him the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. The second Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi qualified in P18. Williams occupied the last row, with what was the last weekend for the Williams family in Formula 1 after their team was bought over.
Top 10 cars started on the soft tyre. Predicted strategy was a one-stop, from soft to medium tyres. Magnussen and Vettel were the only two cars to start on the Hard tyre.
The race got underway and Hamilton maintained P1. Valtteri Bottas, who started P2, fell down to P6 by the end of lap 1 due to a bad start. Behind Hamilton, Sainz was P2, Norris in P3, Perez in P4 and Ricciardo in P5. Verstappen too had a bad start and fell down to P7. On lap 6, Vettel went straight on towards the run off area instead of turn 1 and later confirmed via team radio that he had a break failure. Eventually his car was retired.
The drama in the race started on lap 19 as Magnussen pulled over his Haas near the entry of the pitlane which duly brought out the safety car. On lap 20, Hamilton and Giovinazzi pitted, no one else. As the FIA had closed the pitlane (no cars are allowed to enter the pits) to recover Magnussen’s car, everyone stayed out. Hamilton& Mercedes overlooked this, so did Giovinazzi and his team. Eventually, both drivers were handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for their actions. This costed the race win to then-leader Hamilton. Once the pit lane was opened on lap 22, everyone pitted to change tyres. As racing got underway on lap 25, Leclerc lost his car under acceleration and went into the barrier at turn 11. Thankfully he was not harmed. The crash had a big impact on the tyre barrier and therefore needed repair. Thus, the FIA decided to red flag the session and all cars returned to the pit lane.
Teams are allowed to change tyres and damaged parts under red flag conditions. Stroll effectively got a free pit stop as he did not pit under the safety car. Meanwhile, Hamilton changed to hard tyres as the looming penalty, once served after the start would put him in last place.
After a 25-minute stoppage, cars once more lined up on the grid for at the start procedure, Hamilton on pole once again. He maintained the lead, behind him were Gasly, Raikkonen and Stroll. Hamilton served his penalty on the next lap and came out in last place. Gasly inherited the lead, with Sainz overtaking Raikkonen and Stroll to slot into P2. Raikkonen was on soft tyres and as his pace faded away Stroll occupied P3. Eventually Raikkonen finished out of the points.
Lap 31 saw Max Verstappen retire due to a power unit issue, while his teammate Albon was already running outside of the points after damaging his floor in the opening segment of the race. Sainz tried to pile pressure on the leader Gasly but ultimately finished just 0.415s behind. Stroll completed the podium. Norris finished in P4 giving McLaren their highest points tally of the season in one race. Bottas’s car had overheating issues thus, could not overtake and finished in P5. Renault’s Ricciardo finished P6 while his teammate Ocon finished 8th. Kvyat and Perez completed the top 10. Haas and Alfa Romeo were unable to finish in the points, so was the sole Red Bull of Albon. The Williams boys finished out of the top 10 as well, in what was the last race for Claire and Sir Frank Williams. Hamilton finished P7 after falling back to P16 by virtue of serving the penalty. He was the fastest man on track after the restart. But all the accolades belong to Gasly, who drove superbly to take his first career victory and second win for AlphaTauri/Toro Rosso.
The technical directive regarding engine modes did not affect Mercedes as they maintained their dominance in qualifying and race pace advantage. Due to a bad start from Bottas and an error from Hamilton & Mercedes during the safety car meant that they lost the win. Still, Hamilton increased his championship lead by two points as Bottas overtook Verstappen for second place. Red Bull had a bad race as they failed to score a point and Verstappen retired. To rub salt on their wounds, their slower sister team and a driver they demoted last year won the race. Low downforce circuits seem to be the Achilles heel of Red Bull as they could not qualify for the front two rows. They had setup issues throughout the weekend and their race pace vanished as neither driver gained positions in the race. Ferrari had a nightmare home race as both cars retired and a second consecutive no points race. Ferrari customers Alfa Romeo have looked faster than the Maranello squad for the last two races.
McLaren looked second best the whole weekend, behind the dominant silver arrows. Qualifying and race pace is encouraging as they were able to hold off Racing Point and Renault in the before the safety car intervention. Renault had a mediocre weekend as they were expected to fight for the podium, especially after a good showing at Spa- Francorchamps a week before. Both Ricciardo and Ocon were unable to challenge their orange and pink rivals. Racing Point had decent qualifying with Perez but Stroll languished in P8. Their race pace was good enough to challenge Red Bull and Renault. AlphaTauri got a second win in their history (the first win was with Vettel in 2008 at Monza in their first avatar as Toro Rosso). They were slower than their midfield rivals but made the most of the safety car and red flag opportunity. Once in the lead, Gasly was able to control the pace.
Low drag set up seems to suit Alfa Romeo as they once again outperformed Ferrari. Though they do not have the consistency to achieve regular points finishes. Haas too have a consistency problem as they are unable to unlock the pace from VF-20. The slow Ferrari power unit is not helping their cause as they look to advance in the midfield. The Williams car is draggy (has too much drag for the amount of downforce produced) and was expected to struggle on high-speed circuits like Spa and Monza. They can take the learnings from these races and chip away their deficit to the midfield.
