2021 Formula One Italian Grand Prix

FB_IMG_1631281533313.jpg
For the third weekend in a row, Formula One is back in action. This time the field takes on the Monza circuit for the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

Amidst one of the closest championship battles in in memory, Formula One’s field of 20 cars is taking on the legendary Temple of Speed this weekend. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is host to the 2021 Grand Prix and will test the teams’ abilities to field a car that prioritizes straight line speed.

The tight battle for the lead in the drivers' standings has now carried past the midway point of the season. Lewis Hamilton held a small advantage going into the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort a week ago, but that advantage has now flipped back to Max Verstappen after his exciting home win.

In the constructor’s championship, Mercedes has gained a 12-point lead after a double podium finish at Zandvoort. Like the drivers’ standings, this is another hotly contested battle that could easily be reversed if Red Bull has a strong result at Monza.

Much of the excitement away from the track has centred around the confirmation of George Russell joining the Mercedes team next season alongside Lewis Hamilton. Russell has impressed many in the F1 world with his performance in the lower-tier Williams car. He will be replacing Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, who was confirmed to be moving to Alfa Romeo next season.

And speaking of Alfa Romeo, Kimi Räikkönen’s final season in Formula One has been cut short due to a positive Covid-19 test and associated protocol, and he’ll be replaced this weekend by Robert Kubica, who also stood in for the 2007 drivers’ champion last weekend as well.

Lando Norris’ amazing season has somewhat slowed over the past two weeks. The “technically a race” at Spa two weeks ago saw him finish outside of the points, and then a 10th place finish at the Dutch Grand Prix have dropped him from 3rd to 4th in the championship. His 114 points this season account for two-thirds of the McLaren team points, so the unfortunate results recently have allowed Ferrari to open a gap of 11.5 points in the constructors’ championship after having been tied recently. Excitement from the crowd will be high at Monza for the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to maintain or expand this gap to McLaren.

So, the fight between Verstappen and Hamilton continues for another week, as does the battle between their respective teams. This looks to be another exciting week in the middle of an outstanding year of F1 action. Give us your thoughts below in the comments on who you think will emerge victorious at Monza.
  • Like
Reactions: Adyl, Ruttman98 and Kimirai
About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

More in F1 & Motorsport

Comments

muzikant
LeSunTzu said:
Asking them to go watch football is a denial of the Verstappen phenomenon. He has brought to F1 crowds with a different mindset than the usual motorsport fan. You cannot expect guys who routinely dress in orange, make orange smoke, chant Supermax and boo other drivers to have any objectivity at all.
Click to expand...
Like LH fans ;) :laugh:
 
zwiss
muzikant said:
Right. And I have say to you why.
so we need to start this discussion again? Where was you last weekend with your zantvoort comment?

you said weeks ago you like Max... kind of weird.
Click to expand...
I am happy Max had a great win at Zandvoort.
And I like him to become world champion.
This doesn't mean Max is ALWAYS right.
I know you don't understand this.

Barcelona:
Max dives aggressively into the 1st corner.
Lewis backs out and avoids an accident.
Everybody happy.

Imola:
Max attacks and defends aggressively in the 1st corner.
Lewis has to ride the curbs, and complains.
Max goes on and wins. Everybody happy.

Silverstone:
Max defends extremely hard and takes lots of risk.
Lewis doesn't back out and drifts to the left and hits Max.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Lewis.
Stewarts: penalty for Lewis.
muzikant: Lewis tried to kill Max, punishment not severe enough.

Monza:
Lewis defends very hard and takes the risk of having a crash.
Max doesn't back out and has nowhere to go.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Max.
Stewarts: penalty for Max.
muzikant: Lewis is a very bad boy, and I have no respect for him.

Can't you just ENJOY that we have TWO fantastic F1 drivers fighting a hard duel, and they BOTH deserve respect?
I guess a Dutch F1 fan (?) that can't even spell 'Zandvoort' must be something special.
 
zwiss
muzikant said:
I think they were just both guilty but the Fia is a fine curuption group of people most decisions this year I have my doubts. Race these guys and let them do it too
Click to expand...
Hahaha

Let them do it... except if Max is the victim, then a penalty for Lewis is not firm enough. Hahahha.
 
muzikant
zwiss said:
I am happy Max had a great win at Zandvoort.
And I like him to become world champion.
This doesn't mean Max is ALWAYS right.
I know you don't understand this.

Barcelona:
Max dives aggressively into the 1st corner.
Lewis backs out and avoids an accident.
Everybody happy.

Imola:
Max attacks and defends aggressively in the 1st corner.
Lewis has to ride the curbs, and complains.
Max goes on and wins. Everybody happy.

Silverstone:
Max defends extremely hard and takes lots of risk.
Lewis doesn't back out and drifts to the left and hits Max.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Lewis.
Stewarts: penalty for Lewis.
muzikant: Lewis tried to kill Max, punishment not severe enough.

Monza:
Lewis defends very hard and takes the risk of having a crash.
Max doesn't back out and has nowhere to go.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Max.
Stewarts: penalty for Max.
muzikant: Lewis is a very bad boy, and I have no respect for him.

Can't you just ENJOY that we have TWO fantastic F1 drivers fighting a hard duel, and they BOTH deserve respect?
I guess a Dutch F1 fan (?) that can't even spell 'Zandvoort' must be something special.
Click to expand...
I hope you're happy
 
zwiss
muzikant said:
that was a completely different angle (2nd chigane) Lewis was not on the race line.....no 100% any change for a overtake

in the accident in chigane 1 Lewis comes out of the pit lane with a wide angle.. it's just what you want to see.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's always completely different and it is NEVER Max's fault :)

They are BOTH very good racers, the best!
They BOTH drive aggressively!
They BOTH are the reason we watch F1.

Happy for Ricciardo though.
 
muzikant
zwiss said:
No you are wrong, it is NOT about who you like the most.
I like Max the most, but that doesn't mean he is ALWAYS right.
You can't get that into your little head, can you?
Click to expand...
Its fine enjoy the next race Max fan
 
Terry Rock
PickABetterUsername01 said:
It's very common to run that chicane side by side. And just as in ACC, if you push someone into a sausage kerb, the other car will bounce on it right into the track and you may be the victim of your own squeeze.
Click to expand...
That is a decreasing radius.
Years ago and with much smaller F1 cars, it wasn't as critical.
Trying to fit two modern six foot wide F1 cars through it now, will almost always end in tears.
It is always a bad idea.
90%....no maybe 98% of the time, it'll end in contact due to the right-left flow.
A thinking man would have backed out and lived to fight...or at least consolidate the certain points haul.
He'd still have left monza ahead on points.
This is where youth and aggressive behavior fails Max. At some point he will get it.
The difference in the contact here versus Silverstone....
Lewis realizing it wasn't going to work, braked to give up the corner.
The speed reduction coupled with Max' turn to the right (which he was entitled to do) was why Max' right rear ended up contacted Lewis' left front.
Here, there was no attempt to back out of it by Max.
He was driving into what was certainly going to be a closing wedge due to the left turn for Lewis.
 
Last edited:
K
zwiss said:
Yes, it's always completely different and it is NEVER Max's fault :)

They are BOTH very good racers, the best!
They BOTH drive aggressively!
Click to expand...
There's a difference between being aggressive and being too aggressive. Sometimes, just back off a bit and wait. It seems to me like this generation of drivers thinks that backing off is a show of weakness.

Sometimes, one has to use his brain. Yesterday, they didn't. As a result, we were deprived of a great duel between these two, they both lost a lot of points and McLaren got a well-deserved one-two.
 
zwiss
Kingkoenig said:
There's a difference between being aggressive and being too aggressive. Sometimes, just back off a bit and wait. It seems to me like this generation of drivers thinks that backing off is a show of weakness.

Sometimes, one has to use his brain. Yesterday, they didn't. As a result, we were deprived of a great duel between these two, they both lost a lot of points and McLaren got a well-deserved one-two.
Click to expand...
I understand what you say, but to me it felt as a classic crash... it will be talked about in years to come.
I was not at all disappointed... but happy no one got hurt.
The way they walked back to their pit was pure drama :)
 
Richard Wilks
Terry Rock said:
That is a decreasing radius.
Years ago and with much smaller F1 cars, it wasn't as critical.
Trying to fit two modern six foot wide F1 cars through it now, will almost always end in tears.
It is always a bad idea.
90%....no maybe 98% of the time, it'll end in contact due to the right-left flow.
A thinking man would have backed out and lived to fight...or at least consolidate the certain points haul.
He'd still have left monza ahead on points.
This is where youth and aggressive behavior fails Max. At some point he will get it.
The difference in the contact here versus Silverstone....
Lewis realizing it wasn't going to work, braked to give up the corner.
The speed reduction coupled with Max' turn to the right (which he was entitled to do) was why Max' right rear ended up contacted Lewis' left front.
Here, there was no attempt to back out of it by Max.
He was driving into what was certainly going to be a closing wedge due to the left turn for Lewis.
Click to expand...
Altough i think both were to blame, i don't see what Max should "get". He was behind Hamilton, and had he not have gone for the move, he would have no other chance of doing it, and losing points was an assured conclusion of it. So he , unlike Hamilton, had absolutely nothing to lose in that situation, since his car was not that fast in a straight line to begin with.
So Max's choice was simple, i either back out and lose points, or try to go for the move and maybe have a chance to actually gain points.

And now i can apply the exact same reasoning to Hamilton's actions. With the caveat that according to all the pundits who bought into the "matured and wise multi champion Hamilton" he shouldn«t be doing these sorts of moves anymore. Except he did, even if with his speed, he could have probably gotten by Verstappen later, maybe even braking to the next chicane. But he is now under pressure like he hasn't been in years, and the red mist is coming back stronger than ever, but unlike Max, i suppose he is now too old to just "get it".
 
R
Interslice said:
I was just trying to make sense of the penalty. From the statement it seems like they are treating it as one corner saying 'he was not significantly alongside' at corner entry. He clearly was if you consider them separate corners. Big call by the stewards to not say it's a racing incident and give a penalty. Maybe the fact max's car ended up on top of lewis' made them feel they had to do something.
Click to expand...
I'm just going to add that the penalty is most likely completely irrelevant, it's like a coping mechanism for Lewis fans, they want to see some kind of a punishment because they feel this was absolutely Max's fault, it wasn't, when they were in a meeting all together, they probably came to an agreement that to keep the fans happy, Max get's some small penalty because Red Bull had already, probably, decided to take the engine penalty at Sochi anyway and I can guarantee, those 2 penalty points go right over Max's head.
 
Damage Inc
zwiss said:
I am happy Max had a great win at Zandvoort.
And I like him to become world champion.
This doesn't mean Max is ALWAYS right.
I know you don't understand this.

Barcelona:
Max dives aggressively into the 1st corner.
Lewis backs out and avoids an accident.
Everybody happy.

Imola:
Max attacks and defends aggressively in the 1st corner.
Lewis has to ride the curbs, and complains.
Max goes on and wins. Everybody happy.

Silverstone:
Max defends extremely hard and takes lots of risk.
Lewis doesn't back out and drifts to the left and hits Max.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Lewis.
Stewarts: penalty for Lewis.
muzikant: Lewis tried to kill Max, punishment not severe enough.

Monza:
Lewis defends very hard and takes the risk of having a crash.
Max doesn't back out and has nowhere to go.
Racing incident which could have been avoided by Max.
Stewarts: penalty for Max.
muzikant: Lewis is a very bad boy, and I have no respect for him.

Can't you just ENJOY that we have TWO fantastic F1 drivers fighting a hard duel, and they BOTH deserve respect?
I guess a Dutch F1 fan (?) that can't even spell 'Zandvoort' must be something special.
Click to expand...
To be fair the two disparate punishments don't help when it comes to Max fans reactions. I do think he's been hard done by in comparison to how Lewis has been treated by the FIA. Also seeing as an accident in Copse is far more likely to result in possible serious injury (51g is no joke), whereas (shocking as it was) the possible seriousness to Lewis' health of the Monza incident was more fluke than anything.

Yet Lewis gets a 10 second penalty for the Silverstone incident, fair enough IF he had to pit during the race to repair his car, but the red flag allowed Merc to repair Lewis' car free of charge. In light of the red flag I think a 10 second stop go penalty during the race would have been fairer (although probably wouldn't have changed the result much if at all, can't recall by how much Lewis won by). Not only that Max has a further penalty coming up for the engine change.

For the Monza incident, not only does Max also take himself out...he has to drop 3 places next race which as we all know starting in the pack is often fraught with hazards!!

If I was a Max fan I'd be fuming. But it good to actually see Lewis being pushed finally in the Merc era. IMO it's like Senna and Prost......Max hot headed like Senna and Lewis more calmer and calculating like Prost.
 
zwiss
Damage Inc said:
Yet Lewis gets a 10 second penalty for the Silverstone incident, fair enough IF he had to pit during the race to repair his car, but the red flag allowed Merc to repair Lewis' car free of charge. In light of the red flag I think a 10 second stop go penalty during the race would have been fairer (although probably wouldn't have changed the result much if at all, can't recall by how much Lewis won by). Not only that Max has a further penalty coming up for the engine change.

For the Monza incident, not only does Max also take himself out...he has to drop 3 places next race which as we all know starting in the pack is often fraught with hazards!!
Click to expand...
And I agree it is very annoying that Lewis was extremely lucky that he could repair his car during the red flag in Silverstone.
And I also regret that Max had such rotten luck in Hungary (that's what it was...)
But you can not change the rules to compensate for the luck someone has and adapt the penalties to unrelated circumstances...
Luck has always been a part of F1 too... just check F1 history.

Let's hope Max gets his share of good luck soon.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Mike Smith
Article read time
2 min read
Views
25,293
Comments
314
Last update

Share this article

How are you going to watch 24 hours of Le Mans

  • On national tv

    Votes: 301 34.5%

  • Eurosport app/website

    Votes: 245 28.1%

  • WEC app/website

    Votes: 164 18.8%

  • Watch party

    Votes: 67 7.7%

  • At a friends house

    Votes: 24 2.8%

  • At Le Mans

    Votes: 71 8.1%
See comments…
Back
Top