McLaren and Ferrari had updates to check on Friday of the F1 Italian GP, as Mercedes practiced the tow, while Red Bull suffered from balance issues.
McLaren finally introduced its ‘H-Wing’ on Friday of F1 Italian GP at Monza, with good results. Lando Norris tried it in FP1, followed by both the Brit and Oscar Piastri using it in FP2. From the initial numbers, the team found it useful and mechanically working after earlier trials showed some gremlins.
McLaren, Ferrari scene after Friday in F1 Italian GP
They have been developing the part ever since it was spotted on Ferrari’s car in pre-season testing. They are finally hopeful to use it for the full weekend after analysis on Friday evening. While the H-Wing worked, McLaren struggled a bit on the pace side when compared to its rivals.
Having found success in the last two events, Andrea Stella hopes that it can deliver in Monza, so that they can think of challenging their rivals. But they were a bit aloof of their immediate rivals, with Norris terming it as ‘much trickier’ than the last few Fridays they have had.
He feels they are lacking a bit everywhere and will have to work overnight to find that extra tenth to move up in the front row. Towards the end of FP2 session, McLaren ran a following simulation with both cars going back and forth for several laps, in preparation of race.
Over at Ferrari, the new power unit under ADUO seemed to have worked well on Friday. Neither Lewis Hamilton, nor Frederic Vasseur gave much about the extent but both were positive about delivery and performance. Although, they still think that they are down on the likes of Mercedes.
They had a good FP1 to be 1-2, but Hamilton dropped back in FP2 from Charles Leclerc. The Brit felt the changes he made didn’t help him to extract the maximum and he might revert for FP3. Even though there is a scope of tow help in qualifying, Vasseur said they want two cars on the front row.
Where are Mercedes, Red Bull
He thinks tow is a good idea in the case that the other car has a penalty, but for Ferrari, it is about putting two cars on the front row rather than one. That is the exact play at Mercedes, who practiced tow in FP1, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli focusing on race pace for Sunday.
Despite no significant update, they found themselves to be in a good shape after George Russell set the pace in FP2. Team representative Bradley Lord hopes the bet put on by Fernando Alonso that Antonelli will be on the podium from the back, comes certainly true.
For Red Bull, it was balance issues again. After Max Verstappen missed FP1 for Ayumu Iwasa, he only had one session to get things aligned but it was a struggle. He finished only eighth, few hundreds ahead of Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda. Aside balance, the Dutchman conceded that they are a bit behind overall.
Lando Norris:
“[It was] much trickier than the last few Fridays. We’re struggling for pace quite a lot more than the last few. So, yeah, much trickier. We’ll see what we can change overnight, but we’re not in as good of a position compared to the last few weekends. So, yeah, tough. It’s a bit everywhere, honestly. There’s not one corner we’re quicker than anyone else ahead of us. We lose a little bit in the straights comparing to Mercedes, which we kind of expect, but also the high speed is where we lose most of our lap time, which is normally where we’re quick. So we have to try and figure out a few things, but we’re just off the pace everywhere at the minute. [As for the following with Oscar was] just to see the following and the effectiveness.”
McLaren Representative:
“Well, you saw on the timesheets four-tenths off the quickest car, not where we ideally want to be. We feel like we’ve got a reasonable balance in the car at the moment. We played around with ride heights just to adjust performance between high and low speed. Reasonable there. From an energy perspective we’ve still got a bit of work to do. I think there’s certainly lap time available to us. A little bit moving around recharge, moving around deployment. Drivers, maybe there’s a tenth or so. And from the engineers, yeah, we’ll extract a little bit from the setup. But realistically, I think it’s going to be a challenge to be on pole, but we’ll do what we can to get as close as possible tomorrow.
“Yeah, really, really pleased with the H-Wing. As you saw right from the start of the season, we’ve been developing. We brought it to an event previously, tested, and it’s good to see it on the car. And from the sign-off that we’ve done at this event, mechanically, looks like we’re fine to race it. And from an aero perspective, it does exactly as we expected it to. So no, really pleased to bring that extra performance to this event. Just shows we could have done with a little bit more, but yeah, I think everyone back at the factory, all the way through concept, design, manufacturing, and getting parts to the track for this event, brilliant job.”
Lewis Hamilton:
“The straight-line speed [the main limitation]. It’s considerable, just looking at the deltas just there, I was losing something like six-tenths to George just in the straights, which is something we need to look into. And then just balance, it was really, really hard to pull the lap out of the car, was not an easy one to drive in FP2 for some reason. So we made a couple of changes, but shouldn’t have really been bad. So we might revert, but we’ll take a look and see if we can make it better for tomorrow.
“I think that’s what we need to look into, if it’s that, if it’s deployment, but the engine is an improvement, which I’m really grateful for the guys back at the factory for working on. But our deployment schedule is different to the others, our competitors. But yeah, seems like they maybe have less drag for the straights, so it’s something we need to definitely look at tomorrow. Yeah, the engine, it’s really nice to drive with in the low speed. That’s not been a problem, we’ve done a great job with that.”
Frederic Vasseur:
“No, but I think from session to session we are all using different levels of fuel, different engine modes and it’s very difficult to read even for us. That means that we just have to be focused on ourselves and to try to get the best. We have a kind of convergence of the approach for FP3, but let’s see. Still a long way until Sunday, looks like for the race pace you have different options in terms of energy deployment. For sure you will have opportunities. It’s better if you are not on pole, but if you are on pole tomorrow, I would prefer a mega boring one.
“[For the power unit], yeah, but you have to keep in mind that performance in the straight line, it’s the drag, it’s the weight of the car, it’s everything. It’s not just the engine. And we did a step for sure, and we didn’t bring aero too for nothing. I think we still have a decent gap. [And qualifying tow], no, that’s why I think we have two cars. It’s an advantage and I want to use the two cars. We have two cars on the first rows. Now that if we have one car starting from the back for sure you use it for the tow like Hadjar did for Max in Spa. It’s a clever move, but I prefer to have two cars in front.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli:
“It was a very different Friday compared to usual, focusing a lot more on the long run consecutive laps, but it was a good day. We got a lot of data and yeah, now looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s (overtake) going to be better than previous years because with energy you can do many different things, so it’s going to be, you know, it’s going to be very interesting. And today I did some running behind other cars to see the difference and yeah, it was very interesting to see the difference. [And yeah], we did try in FP1 some towing. I tried to give him a tow and just to take the reference for tomorrow and it looked to work quite well, so let’s see tomorrow.”
Bradley Lord:
“Hey, if Fernando’s bet (that Antonelli will be on podium from the back) pays off and it pays out for him, then we’ll be very happy indeed. I mean, I think we’re aiming to get up into solid points-paying positions. We saw George able to do that in Hungary after effectively starting from the back following the challenge he had off the start line. He was still able to get, back up there, so hard to put too precise a prediction on it just because you don’t know how the race will unfold, what VSCs and safety cars might do.
“We’ve seen in the last few races we’ve been a little unlucky with VSCs, so maybe it’s time for the wheels to turn on that one and something to play into our hands as well. [With tow,] I mean, we’ll have a look at that and see what can make most sense in terms of how he can, you know, put a good lap in Q3, but also then work as a team to maximize George’s chances as well. And I think they’re both pretty clear that, just as we saw really good team cooperation in Zandvoort, then no reason to expect anything different this weekend in Monza.”
Max Verstappen:
“It was tricky to get the balance of the car right today and we will need to work on this for tomorrow to find a little bit more lap time. Our gap is still big compared to the front runners, but I hope that we can close it a little bit in Qualifying over one lap. Hopefully we will be even closer in the race and it will come together a bit more on the long runs, but this is trickier to predict. We are looking at what we can do overnight with the car and see if we can make some positive changes and try and get the true corner balance together. Of course, it was only FP2 for me today, but it was good that Ayumu got a chance to drive.”
Pierre Wache:
“I think clearly we have a balance issue on the car, main thing. A little bit like Zandvoort, to be honest, and try to understand what the issue is, try to fix it in a different way by setup and car components. But yeah, it’s a main thing we are working on. What doesn’t help is when Max is not driving during FP1 and you jump in the car there, that we have less time to react and now we have to react for FP3. It’s a main thing.
“I think I’m never confident, otherwise we will never achieve anything. But it’s what we are trying to do, and all the team are working hard to achieve it, yeah. It (deployment issue) should not be. You know, I think it’s why the free practice is there, is to try to highlight the issue and try to after that fix it. But yeah, I think it’s a normal weekend on that aspect. After, for Max, the main concern for me is the balance.”
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