Formula 1 – the exotic legendary sport. The exhilarating sport of F1 is loved by the fans for various reasons. The rush of adrenaline it produces; the art of fabricating the perfect masterpiece - the marvelous car with the right blend of engineering and technology; Or the flawless skills exhibited by the drivers. Inspite of being the sole reason to witness many spectacular races, the alluring sport has been losing importance in the heart of its fans. With tons of resources spent in the form of money and labour, the F1 community is put under a threatening scenario mainly due to the incompetent nature of the show in the recent years. The association controlling the races, FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile), is looking forward to bring many changes to the format of the sport in order to boost the interest among the fans. The race at Monza, Italy in 2020 took place under such a scenario and why it will be remembered by the fans for a long time will be discussed in this post.

            Coming to the 2020 season, it was delayed to start owing to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19. The calendar was shuffled and many new tracks were included. Yet the results remained the same (atleast the front grid). It was a one-horse race in the front for most of the season with Mercedes being clearly ahead of the pack and Hamilton beating every possible record. The only thing that was going sideways from expectations was Ferrari’s season. But since they were among the few who could have challenged Mercedes, it was not helping the sport at the moment. With 7 races done and dusted in the season that saw a non-Mercedes team win just once and Hamilton winning on 5 occasions, this race was not expected to be any different. Also it is to be noted that the teams were not to utilize different engine modes for the race as per regulations from the FIA. Below is how the drivers and constructors stood in the table until Monza happened.

                                        


    

THE UNFOLDING OF EVENTS:


            The starting grid for the Sunday’s race looked as follows. The nature of the racetrack at Monza is you need a good top speed and also the right amount of downforce to tackle the high-speed corners and parabolica’s. Out of the pack McLaren were surprisingly faster next to the Mercedes. RedBull once again missed out on the top 4 which has been elusive of them since 2013. To add to the woes of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc who had won the event here last year could only manage to grab the 13th spot in the grid and his teammate Sebastian Vettel further lower in the 17th, in their home race.


LAP 1:  Here comes the race on Sunday. It LIGHTS’S OUT at Monza and all the cars were off to a flying start except that of Bottas And Max’s. Norris pounced on the opportunity and went straight into 3rd spot with Sainz sandwiched between him and Hamilton. In the middle of the pack, Gasly and Albon had an incident in Turn 1 that led to Albon losing the places. 


LAP 3:  Max charges on Stroll and gains a position in the straights by making use of the DRS.

LAP 6:  Vettel’s rear brakes started to burn (like literally 🔥🔥🔥) and he completely lost them in turn 1 when he had to go into the polyester barriers to slow his car down. It was race over for him.


With the race taking its course and the drivers slowly finding their rhythms, Albon was charges with a +5 seconds penalty for not giving enough space to the car behind. After having a bad start, Bottas who would have liked to turn things around was not getting any better. His car couldn’t handle the heat when stuck in traffic and he had to move sideways from the car ahead to cool his car which in turn neglected the advantage of a slipstream. With the engine mode regulations in control, he was handicapped from extracting the full juice from his engine.

LAP 19:            This is where things start to get really interesting. Magnussen had “something broke” in his HAAS car and had to stop right in the front of the pit lane entry. 


Generally, when a car stops like this, the marshals in the track take the car to the side tracks and from there to the pit garages. Since the car was right on the edge of the pit entry, it was decided to roll the car straight into the pits.

LAP 20:            Sector 3 was yellow flagged ⚐🟡 and at this moment Gasly pitted for his new tires. Umm, there is a possibility of a safety car and pitting now didn’t seem sensible for many. Because there is an edge of 10 seconds you get when you pit under a Safety Car since the cars in the track are obliged to limit their speeds.

LAP 21:            Just as Hamilton was reaching the final turns of his previous lap, the Safety Car indicators started blinking. Immediately all the teams were ready with their pit crew to change the tires. Hamilton comes in to pit! Sainz following him doesn’t pit. So does Norris! Oh, wait a moment, none of them pitted. Wait, what?? “THE PIT LANE WAS CLOSED”. Remember the car of Magnusson at the entry of pit lane. Since it had to be brought in, the pit lane was closed. The question is, was it closed before Hamilton entered? If so, for sure there could a severe penalty coming his way that could see him not winning the race. 


LAP 23:            Still the cars were under safety car but the pit lane opened. All the cars rushed into the pits. With Gasly, Raikkonen, Leclerc and Latifi having already pitted for their tyres before the SC, they gained a lot of positions. This was because the safety car has come on for almost 4 laps and all the cars have closed their gaps to the front runners. Of everyone this had cost Sainz and Norris dearly who were pushed to 8th and 9th from one and two downs. After the pit stop confusions and stacks, the cars were positioned as follows: 


LAP 24:            SC ended and the race was ONN! Leclerc made a brilliant start overtaking both the AlfaRomeos and into the 4th spot. The reigning winner at this track has his eyes set on a miraculous podium.

LAP 25:            The dreams were short lived for Charles Leclerc as he lost his control and had a bad crash into the barriers. Fortunately, no harm was done to him. 




    Following the crash, the race went under Safety Car for a lap following which a Red flag 🚩 was given. It meant that the race would come to a halt and resume once the barriers were repaired. The red flag also allows the cars to change their tires. And BAM, as per the standings the leader Hamilton has a potential penalty and he was followed by Stroll who hasn’t pitted yet. The red flag almost gave Stroll the race win but win half of race to go, anything was up for grabs in this rollercoaster of a race. Also, the verdict came on Hamilton and Giovinazzi pit stops as a 10 second stop and go penalty. This was equivalent to a +30 seconds (10 seconds stop + 20 seconds translation in the pit lane) penalty but only they will also be behind the pack after the stop.

LAP 27:            The race restarts from the grid in the following order

HAM > STROLL > GASLY > GIOVANIZZI > RAIKKONEN > LATIFI > SAINZ > NORRIS > BOTTAS

After a bad start, Stroll lost his brakes on the restart lap pushing him down to 6th place behind Sainz.

LAP 29:            Hamilton went to pit to pay his dues. When he rejoined the track, he was 29 seconds adrift of the leader and 20 seconds behind the nearest car in front i.e.) Albon.

LAP 31:            After a frustrating race for the Red Bull, Max Verstappen retires his car due to mechanical problems. His second DNF this season.

Positions : GASLY > RAIKKONEN > SAINZ > STROLL > NORRIS

LAP 34:            Sainz’s Engineer on radio    : “You can be patient with Raikonnen x2”

                                                      Sainz        : “I’m more worried about Gasly”

               Sainz was looking for a race win and Raikkonen was slowing him down. He was 3.4 seconds off the leader with 19 laps to go. But being on a faster car it was feasible if Sainz could get himself into the DRS zone of Gasly (within 1 second). So, he had to go on Raikkonen now and so he did !

The race went on its nature from now on. Every car was rushing over Raikkonen’s shoulder and we were able to witness some amazing skills and overtakes. Maybe this provides a promising future to the long-debated topic of having a reverse grid race. Hopefully, we would see some in the near future.

LAP 39:            Hamilton closed the gap to Albon in position 14 who was 20 seconds ahead of him in 10 laps. Is this guy/car even for real, what a drive!

FINAL 5 LAPS:  Sainz comes within 1.224 seconds off Gasly with 5 more laps to go. He threw his best at Gasly and he in turn kept on having answers for them without making a mistake. Better tire management also allowed Gasly to push during the final stages which gave him an edge to overcome the performance deficit to the following McLaren. The race for deciding the winner in the final lap has come after ages and it put all the fans on the edge of their seats.

After a hard struggle, Sainz gets the DRS in the final lap but it wasn’t enough to overcome a resilient Gasly who crossed the chequered flags just in time to register his first ever Grand Prix Victory. Hamilton was conquering behind and inspite of getting the penalty, had an entertaining day in the office after finishing 7th and also taking the extra point for the fastest lap of the race.

The podium read – No.3 Lance STROLL            No.2 Carlos SAINZ       No.1 Pierre GASLY



There were extraordinary scenes in the garages with Alpha Tauri being congratulated by the parent Red Bull. The colors in the podium were not repeated and a new set of faces were standing there. Even tough this victory and race happened due to a set of unfortunate events, it was not dull and something the fans wanted to see to keep their interest for the sport up and alive. This gives the fans a hope that the spirit of the sport is not killed. Until next time, SKAJAAM!   💥💥💥