Zoom Zoom-F1 2024 Italian Grand Prix! Williams and Mercedes make driver decisions, double the eye candy, and Italy goes nuts for their "Prince"!

Welcome to Monza, Italy, one of the most well-known Formula One race tracks on the circuit, and a fave of most drivers. This 15th race comes as both the Constructers Cup (teams) and Drivers Championship have tightened up, with McLaren hot on Red Bull's wheels, and Max Verstappen (last weeks Driver eye candy- my curse continues!) looking in his rear view mirrors as Lando Norris is zooming up for that number one spot!

As usual, here is the 2024 grid, but now with an asterisk:

The asterisk belongs to the Williams team, as this past week, Williams Racing has made the decision that many fans thought was long overdue: Logan Sargent is OUT, and for the rest of the 2024 season Williams will have Alex Albon racing with Argentine Franco Colapinto from Williams reserve team (the first Argentine F1 driver in 23 years!). There was buzz that Williams wanted Kiwi Liam Lawson, but I guess Red Bull is higher up on the Academy pole, as they rejected Williams overtures for Lawson. So young Franco will be finishing out 2024, but then turns the seat over to Carlos Sainz for 2025.

If the race thing doesn't work out, a modeling career could be waiting for Franco!

Oh, the double eye candy is for the Ferrari boys, as this is Ferrari's "home race" :)

P1: Practice One in Monza, most who are decked out in Ferrari red, are sweltering on these Friday practice runs, with temps near 100 degrees, and the Monza track has been completely resurfaced for 2024, but instead of a higher track temperature (which leads to quick tyre degradation), teams are saying that at least for this day, the track temperature is right about where it should be. The big surprise I got today is that, per requirements, each team must have one practice during the season to have one of their reserve drivers take that F1 car out on practice, and on this day, it's Mercedes turn, with the young rookie driver from F2 taking the wheel, 18 year old (!!!) Italian Kimi Antonelli! Before practice, the media was four rows deep at Kimi's pit garage, as this is a really big deal, as the buzz on Kimi is that he will be the chosen one to take the seat Lewis Hamilton vacates for Ferrari in 2025! Talk about stealing Franco's Williams Racing debut thunder! And after 12 minutes of practice, and nailing the fastest lap time, Kimi goes out for another lap, and on the final turn (there are 11), loses control of his rear tyres, slides off the track, thru the gravel, and mildly crashes his Mercedes car into the barrier wall! He is okay, but someone should check to see if Franco has any pins around and a voodoo doll! Also George Russell is eye-balling the damage to HIS car, hoping it can be fixed in the next few hours to run it in P2! Other than some slides and lockups, that's a wrap on P1!

An auspicious debut for Kimi Antonelli, but a good "life lesson" on how F1 racing can treat ya!

P2: The afternoon still finds the temperature in the low 90's, so it's hot everywhere, in the stands, on the grass, and in the garages! Red Bull's Sergio Perez had a last minute gear-box change, and didn't hit the track until about 25 minutes into this 60 minute session. Mercedes pit crew finally got George Russell's car repaired after Kimi crashed it in P1, and hit the track with about 33 minutes remaining. Interesting that both Mercedes drivers are complaining that their seats are too hot! Red Flag at 29 minute mark as Haas Kevin Magnussen takes turn 7 too fast, and spins thru the gravel and smacks the wall. Mags is okay, but he and his car are done for this P2 session. And so is this P2 recap.

P3: Not much happened here, other than the OFFICIAL announcement that Kimi Antonelli WILL be taking the open seat for Mercedes in the 2025 season. Back to the practice, from an observational viewpoint, this P3 was showing me that Red Bull, especially Max, seemed "out of sorts" on the track, that Max and his car were not "clicking as one". At literally the very end of P3, Magnussen was told to STOP his car, dead on the tracks. we don't know why, but it was noticed all the dashboard lights were off, and a weird sound emoted from the car. Odd.

A Happy Birthday to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on this GP race day!

A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.

The Ferrari Prince of Monza, Charles LeClerc!

Quali 1: 18 minutes for this first quali. Magnussen's gearbox has been replaced after that dead stop at the end of P3, Sainz with a new power unit, and very warm weather for the fans, 93 degrees, and the drivers with a 110 degrees track temperature. Tyre degradation due to the newly resurfaced track is low, so soft tyres are choice for qualifying racing. Near the end, rookie Carlapinto found the gravel on turn 11 thanks to his understeering, but was able to save the car and get on track, but ruined his lap time; same thing occurred to Magnussen, but was barely able to make the Quali 2 cut. Your slowest bottom five then are : Both Sauber's- Zhou and Bottas, Williams Carlapinto, RB's Tsonoda, and Aston-Martin's Lance Stroll.

Quali 2: Delayed a bit thanks to Franco and Mags spinning all that gravel onto the track, and the witches brooms are out there sweeping it up (old school!). Hamilton was complaining again about his car seat being too hot, and from I've learned, it seems that the Mercedes cars are having a cooling problem in the drivers cockpit. (I still have images of Cartman on South Park screaming "My ass is on fire!"). And this 15 minute Q2 gets underway, and McLaren's Oscar Piastri's drama is all in the pit lane, as he keeps squeaking out ahead of the driver coming up behind him! No further incidents on track, so the slowest five in Q2 are both Alpines- Ocon and Gasly, Aston-Martin's Alonso, RB's Riccardo, and Haas Magnussen (who is NOT having a good Monza weekend!).

Quali 3: 12 minutes, and what up with the garage exits into the pit lane, as Sainz nearly crashes into Max! No incidents to report so your top ten for Sunday's Monza GP are : A McLaren front row, as Lando Norris takes pole, with teammate Oscar Piastri in 2nd, George Russell of Mercedes, 3rd, Charles LeClerc/Ferrari in 4th, his teammate, Sainz in 5th, Hamilton of Mercedes, 6th, Max Verstappen of Red Bull 7th, with teammate Sergio Perez in 8th, Alex Albon of Williams 9th, and Hulenberg of Haas 10th! 1.5 seconds separates 1st from 5th!

Monza Grand Prix! 53 laps, almost four miles of track, 11 turns. It's very hot, with a local time temperature of 96 degrees, overcast and humid, light winds, and ...what's this? a 40 % chance of rain?? Overall weekend attendance, 335,000. Probably one pit stop territory.

With that setup, it's LIGHTS OUT, and the McLaren's do a nice job of boxing out to take the lead on the first lap, with Piastri scooting inside, and forcing Russell to break and skid off the track, but was able to rejoin but now in 7th place, and has lost his front left wing flap. Meanwhile, Riccardo bumps Hulkenberg, and Hulk drops to 17th after that incident, which has been noted by the race stewards, a bit later on, Hulk bumps Tsunoda, which has also been noted by the race stewards (Hulk taketh, then giveth!), and had to pit as he needed his whole front wing replaced. An unexpected turn of events during lap one, as Oscar pulled a move on his teammate Lando to take the lead, but also allowed LeClerc to jump into 2nd place! (Hmmm). Note: Most of the drivers started on Medium, with some, like Max Verstappen, are driving on Hard tyres. And we have our first retirement on lap eight, as RB's Yuki Tsunoda is done with this race. Five second PENALTY to Riccardo for the bumping incident mentioned earlier on Hulkenberg, and then Hulkenberg is slapped with a 10 second PENALTY for his collision with Tsunoda!

Lap 12 has Riccardo boxing to change tyres, and leaves the pit with a dreadful 8.4 second pit stop time! Russell also boxes, and has that damaged front wing replaced, along with with Hard tyres and comes back out on track in 16th place! Norris pits for change of tyres, and with a 2.2 pit exit, is now in 9th place on lap 15. Leclerc and Hamilton also box, to change to Hard tyres, with nice exits of around 2-5/3.1 seconds. Piastri boxes for Hard tyres and a good exit time. So at Lap 17, we have Sainz (m), Verstappen (h), Perez (h) Piastri (h), Albon (m) Norris (h) Leclerc (h) as your top seven with the new tyres on , with only Sainz still riding his mediums and having not pitted. Btw, Riccardo is hit with another 10 second PENALTY for not serving his first penalty! Talk about getting your helmet slapped by the stewards! Sainz has pitted at lap 20, exits with a 2.5 second stop, and is now in 6th, with both Red Bull drivers in the lead, but they have not pitted yet! All cars are on Hard Tyres at his point. Verstappen boxes for first time, an awful 6.2 pit stop (rear right tyre didn't want to leave Max!). Perez pits and exits with a 3.2 pit stop on lap 24. McLaren's in the lead again, with the Ferrari's behind them. Oh, and Haas Magnussen has picked up a 10 second PENALTY for banging into Alpine's Pierre Gasly's car!

On Lap 33, Norris pits, leaves in 3.3 seconds, and is in 6th. His teammate, Piastri still in the lead, with both Ferrari's, Leclerc and Sainz , behind him, with Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris, Perez and Russell ( who are having a good scrap for 7th!) round out the top eight at this point of the race.

In the last few laps, it's a game of cat and mouse between the Ferrari's and the McLaren drivers, but in the end, by using the one-pitstop strategy, it's Charles LeClerc who sends the Monza fans into a frenzy, by taking the checkered flag! McLaren's drivers were able to overtake Ferrari's Carlos Sainz to place 2nd and 3rd on the podium! Lando picks up a valuable point for fastest lap, and LeClerc wins the "Driver of the Day" fan poll! Red Bull finished 6th and 8th, and with these updated points, McLaren are now only eight points out of first place for the Constructers/Team Championship with eight races to go!

A very happy King Charles LeClerc as he wins Ferrari's "home race"!

Almost every front page in Italy the next day was like this:

The Leo wink after his Daddy Charles wins the Italian Grand Prix! it's an all-star strut!

Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku in two weeks! That's a very spicy track!

Breaking news: The penalties that Magnussen got hit with at Monza, combined with his previous penalties, has pushed Mags over the penalty limit, and therefore will not be racing for Haas in Baku two weeks from now. I suspect young Ollie Bearman will fill that seat, a nice warm up for Ollie for when he officially takes the seat in 2025!