2021 Formula One Italian Grand Prix

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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.
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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

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Comments

Shopguy10
Appie Kuipers said:
Merc track, now Ham maybe can win :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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McGherkin said:
What an amazing race. As a McLaren fan, I'm obviously over the moon. Danny Ric controlled the pace brilliantly, Lando pulled off some amazing overtakes where he could, and wisely held back where he couldn't. Very clever driver with tonnes of natural talent, I think he's going to be the one to watch.

Max clearly shut the door on Hamilton in Turn 4, Hamilton shut the door on Max in Turn 1. Both being childish, but Max has been doing it since day 1 and Hamilton has only really started doing it this season. They both need to stop doing it, but Max has needed to stop doing it for the last christ knows how many years.

Bottas reacting to that crash was hilarious. He did a great job to go from last to 3rd.
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I agree! I also loved “that’s unfortunate” by Bottas, lol
 
LeSunTzu
tr1v1um said:
That's one way to look at it. Learning to not use your opponent as a crash barrier might be a better start. And that goes out to a big part of the grid actually. Situations like Stroll rejoing the track and forcing his teammate wide afterwards, Ocon simply ignoring Vettel, Sainz not giving an inch while clearly being behind the Alfa or Mazepin spinning his teammate are just a few examples. This has nothing to do with close racing but the mentality of the drivers to be more and more ruthless in recent years. And you see this alot when you watch the races in the feeder series where drivers are driving completely careless because cars and tracks got that much safer over the last couple of years. In the 60s, 70s or even 80s they would have never done stuff like that because they all knew that their feet and legs were the first thing hitting a barrier, they knew that they sat in tin can filled with fuel and they knew that any kind of contact could have serious consequences.
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They were doing the same in the 70s and 80s.
 
Cote Dazur
Great race, for once. Very happy for Ricciardo and for McLaren, also nice to see Bottas on the podium, starting from last.
Good show, F1 redeemed them self a little from last week mascarade.
 
Last edited:
T
LeSunTzu said:
They were doing the same in the 70s and 80s.
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I am not saying that there wasn't contact in those days. When you watch older races from the mid 80s you will notice that even people like Mansell and Piquet, or Piquet and Senna who were hating each other atleast gave a bit of space on track. The first situation that kind of resembles a bit of the stuff that we see today are the collisions between Senna and Prost, with the first one at Suzuka in '89 and the second one a year later when it really escalated. My point is, that stuff like that isn't the exception nowadays but the rule. Would drivers have done the same thing that Lewis did at Silverstone or the moves that Mazepin pulled at Baku and at Zandvoort 30 or 40 years ago? I doubt it and watching older footage I've actually never saw anything like that, because drivers in those days were concious about the consequences.
 
muzikant
I find it remarkable that after the start LH gave Lando Norris a lot of space in the same corner. So it is possible. If you want it.
 
GP STONER
This race proved that drs not even could help to overtake..

Nicely done by verstappen and hamilton..
Who to blame both!!! Verstappen could have keept his head cool,
Try to overtake at second chicane.

Hamilton could have left more space like he did with norris.
He dont have to but if he was smart he did that. Every other driver he probably have kept more space but with verstappen its like a red carpet for a bull.

So both drivers not smart.

Dry up the tears and go forward.
Verstappen has got a little bit of a revange for silverstone.
Both no point no gain no lost.

Next race snooze fest sochi..
 
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Lesley Buurlage
Premium
3-place grid drop for verstappen, so the stewards saw him as mostly responsible, otherwise it would had been a 5 or 10 place penalty for sure. A racing incident would had been an acceptable conclusion but i can justify this as well
 
muzikant
BrainsBush said:
Max 3 places gridpenalty and two license points for that Lewis-Max accident
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What a joke again from the Fia
a racing incident would have been appropriate here. but the Fia is helping out Mr Hamilton as usual for a nice new wdc again

Maybe both are to blame, but I don't understand the punishment. Pushing someone with 250 + km/h on the tires takes 10 seconds and this innocent accident costs 2 points and a grid penalty.
I am an enthusiast but it strikes me that Mercedes and Hamilton in particular receive preferential treatment
 
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LeSunTzu
tr1v1um said:
I am not saying that there wasn't contact in those days. When you watch older races from the mid 80s you will notice that even people like Mansell and Piquet, or Piquet and Senna who were hating each other atleast gave a bit of space on track. The first situation that kind of resembles a bit of the stuff that we see today are the collisions between Senna and Prost, with the first one at Suzuka in '89 and the second one a year later when it really escalated. My point is, that stuff like that isn't the exception nowadays but the rule. Would drivers have done the same thing that Lewis did at Silverstone or the moves that Mazepin pulled at Baku and at Zandvoort 30 or 40 years ago? I doubt it and watching older footage I've actually never saw anything like that, because drivers in those days were concious about the consequences.
Click to expand...
I remember that kind of overagressive driving by Hunt, Patrese, Senna, Arnoux, de Angelis, Schumi, etc. Also back in the days, there weren't as many cameras around the track with TV being able to replay any incident between any players, so a lot this wasn't aired.
Btw what "Lewis did at Silverstone" is racing like they all do since cars exist. If any driver says he hasn't been in that situation before, he's just lying.
 
LeSunTzu
GP STONER said:
This race proved that drs not even could help to overtake..

Nicely done by verstappen and hamilton..
Who to blame both!!! Verstappen could have keept his head cool,
Try to overtake at second chicane.

Hamilton could have left more space like he did with norris.
He dont have to but if he was smart he did that. Every other driver he probably have kept more space but with verstappen its like a red carpet for a bull.

So both drivers not smart.

Dry up the tears and go forward.
Verstappen has got a little bit of a revange for silverstone.
Both no point no gain no lost.

Next race snooze fest sochi..
Click to expand...
I don't see how opening doors for Verstappen would be "smart" - especially when Verstappen keeps slamming doors at your face.
 
Richard Wilks
LeSunTzu said:
I remember that kind of overagressive driving by Hunt, Patrese, Senna, Arnoux, de Angelis, Schumi, etc. Also back in the days, there weren't as many cameras around the track with TV being able to replay any incident between any players, so a lot this wasn't aired.
Btw what "Lewis did at Silverstone" is racing like they all do since cars exist. If any driver says he hasn't been in that situation before, he's just lying.
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I dont remember at all people running others off the track like that in those days. Specially at slow chicanes like this, or exits of corners. You have footage to back that up?
 
T
Richard Wilks said:
I dont remember at all people running others off the track like that in those days. Specially at slow chicanes like this, or exits of corners. You have footage to back that up?
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I would def. be interested in that aswell. I've been watching quite alot of the older GPs lately, especialy from the mid 80s and those on-purpose actions are few and far between. As said, the tone got rougher towards the end of the 80s with Senna and Prost, or De Cesaris and Piquet steering into each other at Monaco and creating a funny traffic jam with a nice Italian conversation.

But in the times of Steward you wouldn't see drivers taking out other drivers at copse. A bit of contact and banging wheels was ok, but shoving off your opponents clearly not.
 
R
If that was a backmarker do people think Max would've still went for it or went over the curbs? I think it was one of those petulant moves fueled by anger from the pit where he's thought if he doesn't yield we're both crashing. No way he's doing that **** against anyone other than Hamilton and giving up all those championship points.
 
Interslice
Club Staff
Premium
I can see why they given max the slap on the wrist here. In the first incident lewis is 100% alongside max coming into the chicane. Max shepards him out.

Then the second incident max is behind, his front wheel is behind the lewis' rear coming into the right hander and he has essentially a small dive at the left hand exit.
 
Interslice
Club Staff
Premium
robokun said:
If that was a backmarker do people think Max would've still went for it or went over the curbs? I think it was one of those petulant moves fueled by anger from the pit where he's thought if he doesn't yield we're both crashing. No way he's doing that **** against anyone other than Hamilton and giving up all those championship points.
Click to expand...

Alot of this stems from it being impossible to overtake in these cars once things settle out. So they are super aggressive at any hint of an opportunity. Same thing happened at imola. Hamilton sent it around the outside of verstappen into turn 1.
 
D
muzikant said:
What a joke again from the Fia
a racing incident would have been appropriate here. but the Fia is helping out Mr Hamilton as usual for a nice new wdc again

Maybe both are to blame, but I don't understand the punishment. Pushing someone with 250 + km/h on the tires takes 10 seconds and this innocent accident costs 2 points and a grid penalty.
I am an enthusiast but it strikes me that Mercedes and Hamilton in particular receive preferential treatment
Click to expand...
In the silverstone incident you used the stewards decision to justify your position , now you seem to have changed your tune surprise surprise
 

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