Monza Battle Looms: Ferrari Seeks Redemption on Home Turf
Aug.27 - Ferrari is emerging as a favourite to win its home Italian GP at Monza this weekend.
Although McLaren, rather than Red Bull, is now the dominant force in Formula 1, Mercedes and Ferrari have also won races this season.
Carlos Sainz, who will leave the Maranello based team at the end of the season, thinks the inconsistency among the leading outfits that year has been remarkable.
"McLaren seem to be the team to beat and the rest of us are having problems, whether it's in qualifying or in some of our developments," said the Spaniard.
"Red Bull doesn't seem to have improved much during the season, Mercedes has some very good races and others not so much. I don't think any team on the grid has quite understood these cars," Sainz added.
Ferrari's 2024 car performed poorly in qualifying for the Dutch F1 GP but then had much better pace in the race.
"We do so many interviews with you guys," Sainz told reporters, "you ask us for an evaluation of the weekend after qualifying and when we're one second from pole, it's a complete disaster. Then it seems that Ferrari is incredible in the race and we are going to be able to win at Monza.
"We have to find a middle balance between one and the other, and I think the only certainty is that McLaren is better."
Fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso, racing for Aston Martin, told Spanish journalists after the Dutch F1 GP that for the "next two races, Ferrari should be the car to beat, because of what we saw last year".
"So I think they (Ferrari) will be the favourites. Certainly we would love to have this problem," added Alonso, when asked about Sainz's comments regarding inconsistency.
Ferrari will also have a significant update on the car at Monza this weekend, amid the age-old perception that the local team always seems to have more engine power for its home event.
"The engine thing is a myth," Sainz insisted. "What happens is that Ferrari tends to make a more efficient car for Monza, which we are good at. That seems to make the engine go faster.
"Then, if we make some car improvement, which I hope we will have, it might give us a step forward, but honestly the improvements we bring now are quite small."
Team boss Frederic Vasseur was asked about Alonso's prediction that Ferrari will be the favourite at Monza. "I don't need anyone to tell me whether we are the favourites or not," he said. "Our approach will be the same but I do hope that we will be in better shape in the next two or three rounds.
"The fact that we are better in the short corners will help us," the Frenchman added, "but we were very far away at Zandvoort so I would never go to Monza, Baku or anywhere else thinking it will be a walk in the park.
"But if we manage to make a jump of one or two tenths, everything will change. Then again, after three races, everyone was convinced that Max (Verstappen) would be champion by mid-season. Then we won a few races, then Mercedes and now McLaren.
"I hope it will soon be Ferrari's turn again," said Vasseur.
Many pundits believe that while McLaren is in with a real chance of beating Red Bull to the constructors' championship this season, Verstappen's 70 point gap over Lando Norris will be much more difficult.
"It's clear that if Max continues to finish second or third, I think it's enough for him to win, because McLaren will also fail at some point," said Sainz.
"But it is also true that if Max starts to fail, things could get difficult. And we all know that, as has been shown many times, as soon as someone is put under pressure, they start to fail."
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