Just a few days after the teams had packed up in Zandvoort they had crossed the Alps to arrive in northern Italy at the historic & ultra-fast Autodromo Nazionale Monza, also known as the Temple of Speed. It was originally opened in September 1922 & was 6.2 miles long. Some of the old sections can still be seen in what is a ‘Royal Park’, although the ‘royals’ have since been deposed, but the track is still there, albeit in a much reduced form -it’s only 3.6 miles long now. Since last year, it has undergone a revamp - the kerbs having been raised at many of the famous corners, which wasn’t met with approval from the majority of the drivers. It had also been resurfaced, that ironed out many of the bumps it was notorious for, which the drivers did approve of. Like many of the other teams, Aston Martin brought a dedicated ‘low-drag package’ to Monza, comprising a new front wing, new rear wing & a new beam wing. Alarmingly, before even a moment of Formula 1 activity took place, the official Aston Martin F1 Safety Car crashed heavily at the famous Parabolica corner in a bizarre incident. The car ended up in the tyre barrier and fortunately, regular F1 safety car driver, Bernd Maylander & his passenger were both “fine”. The FIA issued a statement saying “Aston Martin is investigating the cause but can confirm both driver and passenger are fine. There is an additional safety car at the circuit and it will not impact the weekend's event.” For any more details & photos please click on this link: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-safety-car-crashes-italian-gp-monza/. At the time, I commented ‘Bernd Maylander must be feeling shaken, not stirred.
Despite that, FP1 got underway on time on Friday, albeit briefly. F1 rookie, Kimi Antonelli, on his debut outing for Mercedes, in place of George Russell, brought out the red flags after crashing 10 minutes into the session, having experienced a snap midway through the Parabolica. The cars retuned to the track after everything was cleared away & the safety barriers checked & the times quickly tumbled as the session progressed. But not so much for the Aston Martins – with 15 minutes to go Alonso was 18th & Stroll 19th (i.e. last, as Antonelli was out)! Both Aston Martins did improve though & at the end of the session Alonso rounded out the top 10 & Stroll finished P16. After the usual debrief & adjustments the cars went out on track a few hours later for FP2. After 15 minutes had gone Alonso had set the 13th fastest time, Stroll the 17th. Then Stroll had soft tyres fitted & he went 6th fastest. At the halfway stage, Alonso was P8 & Stroll P9. Immediately after that, there was another crash that stopped the session for 12 minutes - Magnussen this time who crashed into a barrier. After the session got back underway the Aston Martin duo set the 9th (Alonso) & 10th (Stroll) fastest times with 5 minutes to go & that is where they ended up.
After the red flags of Friday, FP3 proceeded uneventfully, although there was plenty of competitive driving. The margins were incredibly fine throughout the field, with the top 5 separated by just 0.15 of a second from the moment they completed their first runs until the end of the session. Sadly, the Aston Martin’s were not among them, Alonso ending up only 11th fastest & Stroll 15th. Next it was the all-important Qualifying session, pole position being crucial, as statistically the race has been won more times from pole than in Monaco. Both AMs headed out on track with just over 10 minutes to go and Alonso put his car in a respectable P7 and Stroll was P11. However, they weren’t able to maintain these places, as the track evolved & with 5 minutes to go they had tumbled down to 8th & 14th. Stroll & Alonso then went out again for a final fast lap but they were among a long line of traffic. Stroll was improving his time but then had to back off when he approached the sector where yellow flags were being waved due to Magnussen going off track and he only managed P17 & was eliminated. After starting his final lap, Alonso backed off, knowing he was safe in P10. Q2 was slightly delayed, due to needing to sweep the track of gravel put there by Sainz and Colapinto. Eventually, Alonso headed out in the sole remaining AMR24 & put himself right on the cusp of the top 10 but was pushed down to 11th when Hamilton got his Mercedes into the top slot. With 5 minutes to go all eyes were on Alonso, but the 2-time world champion couldn’t improve & missed out on Q3 by just 1/100th of a second. In the final session, Q3, Norris led a McLaren 1-2 to grab pole position, followed by 2 Mercedes’, 2 Ferraris & 2 Red Bulls.
After launching themselves off from the start in 2 by 2 formation we were treated to a great battle upfront. Norris initially stayed in P1 before Piastri muscled his way past his team mate at the 2nd chicane, followed by Leclerc in the Ferrari along the next straight. Once again, Norris hadn’t managed to hold onto the lead despite starting on pole. Alonso, starting on the medium compound tyres, managed to sneak into 10th place but Stroll stayed 17th. It got worse for him on the next lap when he was passed by rookie Colapinto, making his F1 debut, in a Williams. Over the next few laps Stroll benefited from Hulkenberg and Tsunoda having to pit and then he managed to retake a place from Colapinto & was up to 15th. On lap 10 Gasly came into the pits & Stroll moved up to 14th. Then on lap 12, Russell had to pit for a new front wing as well as fresh tyres, as he had a collision in turn 1 off the start. This allowed Alonso, who’d been within a second & DRS range of Albon, to move up to 9th & Stroll to 11th. Shortly afterwards, Alonso came into the pits & out again, on new hard tyres, in 15th place. Stroll meanwhile, stayed 11th, as he was passed by Ocon. Over the next 4 laps, the Aston Martin drivers benefited from Magnussen and then Hamilton having to pit, elevating Stroll up to 9th & Alonso to 14th. 2 laps later, Alonso caught & overtook Gasly for 13th place & when Albon pitted on the next lap Alonso slotted into 12th. Next though, Hamilton, on fresh tyres, easily overtook Stroll who hadn't been in for a tyre change yet. He came in on lap 20, had new hard tyres put on & came out 17th. Alonso had now moved up to 11th & on lap 22 he passed Bottas & was back up in a point scoring position. At the halfway stage of the race, lap 27, Alonso passed Ocon at the start of the lap & moved up to 9th. As drivers started to peel off again for their 2nd round of pit stops Stroll was a beneficiary, so that by lap 35 he was up to 14th & behind Colapinto again. Alonso briefly moved up to 8th when Russell pitted, but he too had to come in on the following lap as high tyre degradation was forcing the team to ditch the mathematically quicker 1-stop strategy. He came out 14th, behind Stroll, but on the next lap it was Stroll’s turn to change his tyres & he came out 17th. On their new tyres, Stroll managed to get past Gasly, for 16th & then past Zhou, for 15th. Alonso meanwhile, had passed Ocon & with 10 laps of the race to go, he overtook Colapinto & then Riccardo on the next lap. He was now up to 11th but was 6.6 seconds behind Albon with just 7 laps to go. He managed to reel Albon in to a 2-second gap but then in the closing stages, Albon benefited from DRS to pass Magnussen to finish 9th (just 1 second ahead of Alonso) and Magnussen managed to hold off Alonso & crossed the finish line less than 2/10ths of a second in front the Aston Martin driver. Bitter disappointment! Stroll pitted again before the finish, apparently in effort to secure the fastest lap, which left me puzzled, as the point for the fastest lap is not awarded if you finish outside the top 10. As he was 15th before he came into the pits, he finished 19th & last of the cars that were still running – with Norris recording the fastest lap anyway. Much to the tifosis delight, Charles Leclerc, won the race, having taken the risk of going with a one-stop strategy in his Ferrari, just a few seconds ahead of the McLaren’s of Piastri & Norris.
Before the race, Mike Krack, Aston Martin Team Principal, set expectations by stating that “we are at the same distance to the second, third and fourth teams” and that “you'll probably see the cars running in order of pace”. Given that Aston Martin are in a solid 5th place in the championship the best that we should expect is 9th & 10th places. Given that the highest qualifier, Alonso, started 11th this was almost a damage limitation exercise for Aston Martin and it’s certainly not an ideal result for the team that finds itself very much mid-pack & missing out on a point or two by the tiniest of margins. After the race, Alonso said, "It was a difficult race today. We maximised the pace the best we could. I was able to push the car to its limits so I'm happy in that regard, but we did struggle with the relative pace of the car on track. We were in the points at the start of the race and were able to undercut Albon thinking all teams would execute a two-stop race. It wasn't enough at the end to recover from that extra pit stop so [the result] was much, much better than expected”. Stroll’s comments were, "Today's result was more or less what we expected. We haven't had the pace to challenge all weekend and we knew there wasn't going to be much we could do from P17. We went into the race open to a one or two-stop strategy but elected to stop twice when we saw the levels of tyre degradation”.
With the final race in Europe all over, the teams head to Azerbaijan for the 8 remaining ‘fly away’ races of the 2024 season. I will be there in person, a ‘paying guest’ of Aston Martin again and I’ll provide as much detailed coverage and ‘live’ reporting as possible.