Italian Grand Prix: From continuation of Lewis Hamilton week to Ferrari's struggles, talking points from Monza

What a week it has been for Lewis Hamilton. After equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions in Belgium, he created his own record by clinching his 69th pole position in a wet qualifying session and by qualifying a full second ahead of the entire field. But that wasn’t all. He registered his 59th career win at the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s home race and in front of their ever-passionate Tifosi (who were quick to boo him off the podium). [caption id=“attachment_4007745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lewis Hamilton takes a selfie and celebrates with fans after winning the Italian Grand Prix. AP[/caption] By winning in Monza, Hamilton snatched the lead of the Drivers’ Championship from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for the first time this season. In fact, it was also the first time this season (it took 13 races) for us to have a back-to-back race winner. All in all, Hamilton who has been unbeaten after the summer break, has a slender three-point lead over Vettel (which Niki Lauda jokingly pointed out could’ve been 6 — ref: the three points he handed back to Bottas in Hungary) and seems unstoppable.

Much of Hamilton’s momentum can be attributed to the fact that both Spa and Monza were known to be tracks that would favour Mercedes and they did. The Hamilton-Mercedes combo scored 100 percent of the points available (50 in total) from these races, as opposed to the 33 points scored by Vettel-Ferrari. The worrying factor from Monza was the manner in which Ferrari was beaten in qualifying and the race. They were horribly out-qualified on Saturday by Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, a Force India and a Williams. In the race, Vettel finished nearly 30 seconds off the Mercedes duo. It was almost as though Ferrari brought their 2016 racing cars to the 2017-edition of their home race.

However, Mercedes’ pace could also be attributed to a loophole in the regulations that they are now legally exploiting. The new Mercedes engine is burning oil at a higher rate that’s allowing generation of extra power (Monza was their 3rd one-two finish of the season). While some are suggesting that the FIA should plug this loophole, we’re expecting that the other power unit manufacturers will follow Mercedes’ footsteps and introduce upgrades in the races to come. However, till they do so, it is Advantage Mercedes. Despite the defeat in Monza and the controversy surrounding the oil-burn, the Ferrari camp seemed upbeat and positive. While Sergio Marchionne admitted that the team ‘screwed up’ and that the car setup went in an unexpected direction, both the drivers, Vettel and Raikkonen, were convinced that this was only a blip in their season and not an indication of the team’s performance for the rest of the season. This of course puts even more emphasis on the result of the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix – to be held in a fortnight. The general belief in the paddock is that the circuit characteristics of the street circuit in Singapore will suit the Ferrari and their championship attack will be back on track. For the fans and Vettel’s sake, let’s hope that this belief comes true. After a strong first half of the season and in a championship that will definitely go down to the wire, Ferrari and Vettel need to bring their A-game to the remaining races. The 2017 Italian Grand Prix was a standout race for two rookies — Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon. Stroll qualified fourth in a wet session, started second, alongside Hamilton but finished seventh. As for Ocon, a brilliant qualifying effort to fifth, saw him start third, only to finish sixth, ahead of the charging Williams duo and his team-mate. It was a good weekend for Force India, who established their ‘best of the rest’ status by scoring double points yet again. Ross Brawn is working on a plan to do away with grid penalties and DRS – two strong negatives in the sport currently. At the Italian Grand Prix, nine out of 20 drivers suffered from grid penalties that eventually saw only two drivers start in the positions they had qualified in. Comically enough, Sergio Perez, who qualified 11th and had a five-place grid penalty, started 10th. As for the DRS, we are of the view that the mixed grid that was on offer in Monza (thanks to the grid penalties, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hulkenberg — all started from the back) should’ve made for exciting racing with faster cars trying to charge their way to the front, but did the DRS end up ruining some of the fun? It would’ve been great to see Ocon, Stroll and even Raikkonen hold position rather than be sitting ducks on the main straight. Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner came up with an interesting stat. Max Verstappen started the 13th race of the season, from 13th place in the RB13 and scored a point. But it could have been much more for the Dutchman had a race-clash with Massa not yielded in a puncture that led to an unscheduled pit-stop and loss of track position. However, it was his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo — also voted as the Driver of the Day — who did all the overtaking and entertaining. On an alternate tyre strategy to the others and starting from the back, Ricciardo overtook Ferrari’s Raikkonen to finish fourth and further cement his fourth place standing in the Drivers’ Championship (where he is incidentally ahead of Raikkonen in fifth). Finally, this could be the week where we could finally hear the future of the Mclaren-Honda-Alonso saga. It is public knowledge now that Mclaren is attempting to pass-over Honda to Toro Rosso and sign up their existing supplier Renault for themselves for 2018. By doing so, there’s hope that Fernando Alonso will stay with the team and in the sport next season. There’s also hope that being Renault’s customer team would be better than being Honda’s works team. Ironically, Mclaren is working hard to secure an engine that Max Verstappen doesn’t want. As for Honda, the new owners of Formula One are working hard to ensure that Honda, a celebrated road-car manufacturer in its own right, doesn’t leave the sport. There is hope that by the time we reach Singapore, Ferrari would have found a fix for their lack of pace and Alonso would have announced his extension with Mclaren. Then there will be a lot for the fans to cheer for.