Adam Cooper F1

Sainz thought he was heading for pole at one stage

Carlos Sainz thought he was heading for pole position at Monza before understeer at the Lesmos and the Parabolica spoiled his final lap.

The Ferrari driver slipped back to fifth, just pipped by his team mate Charles Leclerc.

Sainz, who ran wide into the gravel on his first lap in Q1, said that cloud cover changed track conditions in Q3, and induced understeer.

“There was just a small moment in the first lap, just bottoming out in a kerb,” he said when asked by this writer about his session. “But from there on, I felt I was flat out in a good place with the car.

“I did some strong laps in Q2, then in Q3 this cloud started to arrive. The temperature started to drop, the grip was a lot higher. That’s why you saw us going a lot quicker in Q3.

“But unfortunately in our car, it just induced a lot of understeering in the two Lesmos and Parabolica, and it meant that we couldn’t get the car turned.

“I did a good purple sector one in that last lap, which I thought I was on for pole. But then even if we added a lot of balance, a lot of flap to the car in the last run, still the Lesmos and the Parabolica gave me big understeer, and I couldn’t get the car turned, and the lap didn’t quite click.”

He added: “Every time I was on new tyres, I was top three, and in Q3 when I when I put new tyres, I was top three, top four, top five.

“But the mistake was not to, not to add enough front end to the car through qualifying, especially when the track temp dropped, because I’m pretty sure that understood what cost me today a better qualifying.”

Sainz admitted that it was tough to take given how close the front of the grid is.

“It’s frustrating, because it’s one-tenth and a half,” he said. 

“I had a big understeer moment in Turn 6, Lesmo One, another big understeer moment in Parabolica, which cost me probably half a tenth to a tenth each.

“And when you see the gaps, then you realise that if we maybe would have nailed the balance in the high speed, we could have been fighting for it, . But I guess it’s going be a similar situation for everyone. And it just shows how sensitive these cars are to anything that happens with the weather.”

Sainz stressed that Sunday’s race will be decided by tyre management.

“I think tomorrow is going to be all about who manages the graining better,” he said. “And normally, in that case, it’s the one who gets clean air manages to do a better job.

“So I think it’s going to be a very tough, very tight race across eight cars, and it’s going to be all about seeing who manages to get rid of the graining , because once the graining appears, we have one or two seconds of deg, which we’ve never seen before.”

Regarding the latest floor update he said: “There’s definitely low bouncing for us here this weekend.

“So TBC if it’s the new floor, and we need to go to other tracks to double check, because here anyway, has always been low bouncing.

Colapinto will start 17th on his debut

Franco Colapinto concedes that the Italian GP will be a “learning session” for him as he makes his first Formula 1 start with Williams.

The Argentine driver qualified 18^th after a running wide on his last lap and missing the chance to progress to Q2.

Thus far he hasn’t run a stint longer than eight laps over the three practice sessions at Monza, and thus has much to learn in a race where tyre management is expected to be critical.

“It’s a pity,” he said when asked by this writer about his session. “I think we were looking strong, and after FP3 I felt a good result. It was looking like we were quite competitive, and I was building and trying to understand more the car.

“Unfortunately, that mistake that cost me a lot, but I think it’s just part of the process, and I need to keep working and looking forward. Let’s see how it is tomorrow the race, it’s going be long, but I’m looking forward to understanding better the car.”

Regarding his error he said: “With a bit of understeer, it was quite on the limit that lap, and I couldn’t catch it back.

“So just a little mistake that cost me, of course a lot, maybe a chance of going into Q2, it was only one-tenth. so it’s a pity, but it’s part of it, and I’m going to get much stronger soon I think.”

Colapinto agreed that making the chequered flag will be a key part of his learning curve.

“It is important, I think it’s going be a nice learning session for me to try and understand better the tyres,” he said. “I think it’s the most difficult part, and I need to keep understanding how the current tyres work.

“It’s going to be tough. I want to try and learn them the most I can from the session, and try to understand more the tyres. I think that is the most important part. And let’s see how it goes.”

He acknowledged that he has to show progress in the coming races.

“I’ve just done a couple of laps so far in an F1 car, so it’s just a start,” he said. “But I feel like we have good potential, and that I have to do, of course, a step in the next couple of races.

“It’s been a decent start. It’s going to be a good few races to go, and good to get experience here in how to manage tyres. It’s going to be really hot tomorrow, and it’s going be nice to understand how to manage the tyres.”

Verstappen was frustrated by his Q3 form in Monza

Max Verstappen was left struggling for an explanation after the balance of his Red Bull RB20 changed from Q2 to Q3 in qualifying at Monza.

The Dutchman was an encouraging second fastest in Q2, but having gone slower in the final session he could manage only seventh on the grid.

He’s also pessimistic about his race chances given that a tricky car will potentially be hard on its tyres.

“For whatever reason in Q3 I picked up a lot of understeer on both tyre sets, and this is something that I don’t understand at the moment,” he said.

“I mean, it was just not drivable anymore. I couldn’t attack any corner. So that’s something that is very weird. I mean, going four-tenths slower than what you did in Q2 is not normal.

“The only explanation is that it felt better on a scrubbed tyre for me than on a new. I mean, the balance difference that I had in Q3 was very weird. Never experienced something like that before.”

Asked if it was something that could be addressed with a wing adjustment he gave an insight into the problems that he’s faced recently.

“Yeah, but it’s just weird that it suddenly happens, because Q1/Q2 it was not like that,” he said. “But at the other hand, also, our car is extremely tricky to drive from entry to mid-corner.

“Like it’s a massive balance shift at the moment. So if you fix one thing, it creates another problem. So we have to be quite careful with that as well.

“It doesn’t help that we don’t have a Monza wing, so we’ve been trimming the wing a lot, and that’s not the most efficient way of going at it. But the balance issues that I’m experiencing now, I’ve had for a long time.”

He downplayed the impact of team mate Sergio Perez running wide in front of him on his final lap.

“I already had the same problem on the lap before, you know, on the other tyre set. So it was just not working for whatever reason.”

Asked if he could still fight for victory he said: “Normally not, the whole weekend already, we were too slow. The long runs, they might look good on paper, but it didn’t really feel like that personally.

“The problem is that when you don’t have a balanced car, of course, in the race, that is quite painful on tyres also. So let’s see.

“I mean, maybe with how the car is at the moment, it might be a little bit better for the race, but we’re also starting in the back of let’s say the top group, so just have to wait and see what happens in front of us.

“And there are a few unknowns with the graining as well. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Leclerc was frustrated to be so close to pole

Charles Leclerc was left frustrated by understeer in qualifying at Monza that saw him fourth and just 0.134s off pole in a very closely-packed field.

Leclerc said he had the issue on Friday and believed it had been addressed after a good FP3, but it returned in qualifying and cost him precious tenths.

However he doesn’t expect it to be as much of an issue in Sunday’s race.

“Very frustrating, because we were close,” he said when asked by this writer about being so close to the front.

“But again, it’s not enough. In Turn 1, 2, 4, 5, we’ve had exactly the same issue since, FP1, FP2, just understeery, cannot rotate the car.

“FP3, for some reason there wasn’t a problem anymore, and then qualifying, it came back.

“So that’s what’s frustrating, because I think we lose over two-tenths, two-tenths and a half in four corners at the beginning of the lap, and then to come back is very difficult. But again, it is the way it is.

“Now we’ve got to focus on the race pace tomorrow. I don’t expect to have as much of an issue tomorrow in Turn, 1, 2, 4, 5, and hopefully that will help our race pace.”

Leclerc admitted that he had a slightly different set-up compared to Carlos Sainz, who started behind him in fifth.

“We had some slight differences, and he was definitely quite a bit stronger in Turn 1/2,” he said.

“Which is something that will analyse, that we have analysed already, and we didn’t quite make a step forward with my setup on that side. I gained everywhere else. So we decided to stay there.

“At the end it’s the same lap time. But it was very tricky.”

Leclerc said the new floor upgrade is working well, although he downplayed the lack of bouncing in Monza.

“I will be a bit more cautious with that,” he said. “Monza is a track where normally we don’t have these kind of issues. And also, yes, last year it was a pretty good race for us in terms of those weak characteristics of the bouncing.

“So I think we need a step forward. From numbers everything looks like it’s going much better. I don’t think we will have suffered of bouncing anyway on this track, even with the old package, but everything we were expecting from this floor is there. So this is a good sign for the future.”

Asked if he was looking forwards or backwards for Sunday’s race he said: “I want to look forward. I mean, backwards there are quite a lot of guys that are super quick and that I will have expected to be in front of us today, but at the same time, I think we can have a good race.

“There wasn’t too many differences of pace, apart from Lewis, that did a really strong race pace in FP2, but he was bit too slow in the first part of the race, which I don’t think he can do tomorrow. So I think we’ll all have a very similar race pace.

“I need a good start. And then try and use that DRS to try and stay within the McLaren, which we expect to be very, very strong. And then it will be a tyre management race, everybody, I think, as I said, has a very similar pace.

“Apart from any surprises tomorrow, I think we are all pretty similar. However, we’ve got to do a good job tyre management-wise, because this is what will do the difference tomorrow.”

Leclerc is not too worried about the Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez starting seventh and eighth.

“I think they will be strong. I think they will be strong tomorrow. However, I don’t expect them to be much stronger than we are in the race. So yeah, we shouldn’t look backward, but we’ll try to look forward, and hopefully go in and win that race.”

An honest Hamilton blames himself for P6 at Monza

Lewis Hamilton admits that he didn’t do a good job in Q3 at the Italian GP, saying that his own performance was “absolutely ridiculous” and “completely unacceptable” after he could manage only sixth place.

Hamilton topped Q2 at Monza after getting a good tow, but he slipped to the back of the McLaren/Mercedes/Ferrari group after losing time early in his last lap.

He starts ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

“I wasn’t expecting more, but I was expecting to do a better job than I did,” he said when asked by this writer about the drop-off from Q2 to Q3.

“First one, we were a bit further off than anticipated. The second one, obviously, we were quickest, and there were small areas to improve. And then the third I just didn’t do the job. I didn’t extract the maximum.

“Turn 1 and 2, I lost a tenth and a half to my previous Q2 lap, and then lost another tenth in Turn 11. So that’s just absolutely ridiculous from my side, completely unacceptable, and it’s just totally me, nobody else.”

Hamilton has shown good long pace at Monza, but he’s realistic about the possibility of challenging for victory on Sunday.

“So far behind now,” he said. “The chance that of fighting for a race win is out the window. I think tomorrow just got to try and recover as much as I can, and see if I can get past the Ferraris, and see if I can try challenging to get to the podium.”

Hamilton admitted that the Kimi Antonelli announcement – which brought home the fact that he’s leaving the team – had an impact on him.

“I’ve known for ages,” he said. “I knew it’d be announced this morning, and I definitely woke up, and it was very, very, very surreal to just to have officially confirmed my seat is going. I’ve held onto it for so long.

“So it was quite emotional this morning, but really, really happy for Kimi and for this team. I know Kimi is going to do a great job.”

Hamilton admitted that there will be some emotion around the remaining races with Mercedes.

“It’s been there all year, every single race, when you turn up,” he said. “I love my team so much, been through a hell of a lot together. So it will be emotional, every single race, because every race we do, it’s the last time at that particular place, and every race, we get closer and closer to the last time I’ll be in a Mercedes.

“My focus right now is to try and do the best job as I can for the team. And as we said, to finish on a high, and I’ve got to, I’ve got to find myself in qualifying somehow. My race pace is great. Just got to figure out how to get back to my old self.”

Regarding Antonelli he said: “He’s a great kid, and he’s got a good family around him, a good head on his shoulders, and very talented. He’s going to do great. I’m really excited for him.”

Wolff insists that he always wanted Antonelli for 2025

Toto Wolff has revealed that he decided that he wanted to run Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes Formula 1 team in 2025 “five minutes” after Lewis Hamilton told him that he had signed for Ferrari in January.

In other words Wolff decided to commit to readying Antonelli for graduation next season even before he had raced anything faster than a FRECA car.

However Wolff also admitted that he had hoped to entice Max Verstappen away from Red Bull, while insisting that Antonelli was always his priority as George Russell’s team mate.

“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he’s going to Ferrari,” he said.

“Obviously, we were discussing other options, and also kept the Max idea. Didn’t discount it completely, with looking at what happened at Red Bull.

“But instinctively, that is the line-up, with these two, that I always wanted. Bearing in mind the fast tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too, but that was immediately what I wanted to do.”

Asked by this writer if he had now given up on Verstappen and what would happen in the Dutchman wanted to join Mercedes in 2026 or 2027 Wolff said he would be honest with his current drivers.

“What I appreciate also in dealing in dealing with them is just very straightforward and transparent, and I don’t flirt outside,” he said.

“‘ve always said it, I got maybe caught out by the Lewis situation, but I’ve not entertained any discussions with any drivers when giving it all from the team to make it a success.

“And this is why all of our focus in the team is on George and Kimi, and that’s what I also said. There’s no discussion, there’s no second thoughts about what they’re doing in 2026, because now it’s about 2024 and 2025 and if flirting outside happens, then these guys will know it at the same time when we have those discussions. I’ve always been that open.”

Wolff downplayed the fact that today’s line-up announcement specified 2025 only, with no mention of multi-year deals.

“They have been and will be Mercedes drivers, and therefore, we have contracts with George and Kimi that go much longer, that are very complicated in terms of options, etcetera,” he said.

“And this is a pressure cooker. Mercedes always has been a pressure cooker, but this is where we stand as a team. Today, we want to go with these two.”

He added: “Like we’ve done in the past, we always had very short contracts with each of the drivers, even with Lewis last time around, it was one plus one. And this is, in a way, how the team operated. But I think most important is to see how George and Kimi settle in.

“And I see no reason at that stage of not giving them the faith and the trust of going forward. What that means for the terms, is something that we will discuss between ourselves, but we wouldn’t have gone for the line-up with these two, if we wouldn’t believe 100% that they’re the best choice for Mercedes.

“I feel so much pride sitting with these two here. To see young drivers going through the programme from a super early age onwards, winning everything that needs to be won, ticking all the boxes.”

Wolff also noted that Antonelli has had ideal parental support.

“What to say about Kimi?,” he said. “Perfect family background. His father knows everything about racing that you need to know as a driver. And I think it’s been with Kimi straight from the get-go. Wonderful mother, and that has been supportive.

“So I think you can recognise a pattern with the strong dads that understand racing, and give the right support and the right stick, and the mother that is trying to be the nice one in the relationship!”

Worst kept secret? Mercedes has finally confirmed Antonelli

The Mercedes Formula 1 team has finally confirmed that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton and race for the Brackley team in 2025.

The 18-year-old made his public debut with the team in George Russell’s car in FP1 at Monza on Friday, crashing heavily after putting in what Wolff called an “astonishing” performance on his brief appearance.

He is also set to drive Hamilton’s W15 in FP1 in Mexico City before doing the Abu Dhabi rookie test – and possibly the rookie sprint event if it happens – at the end of the year.

Antonelli has been conducting an extensive programme of TPC running with a two-year-old car alongside his F2 campaign with Prema.

Wolff faces a potential headache in the next couple of years as he is still determined to tempt Max Verstappen away from Red Bull, while already having Russell and Antonelli signed up. It mirrors the situation Fred Vasseur faced at Ferrari when he had to drop Carlos Sainz to make way for Lewis Hamilton.

Intriguingly today’s announcement only specifies 2025.

Wolff said: “Our 2025 driver line-up combines experience, talent, youth and out-and-out raw speed. We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers, but also as a partnership. Our new line-up is perfect to open the next chapter in our story. It is also a testament to the strength of our junior programme and our belief in home-grown talent.
 
“George has proved that he is one of the very best drivers in the world. He is not only fast, consistent, and determined, but has also developed into a strong leader within the team. Kimi has consistently shown the talent and speed needed to compete at the very top of our sport.

“We know it will be another big step up, but he has impressed us in his F1 testing this year and we will be supporting him every step of the way in the learning process. In George, he has an experienced team-mate from which he can learn and hone his craft.

“I am confident that both will contribute greatly as we continue to build momentum and fight at the front of the field.”

Antonelli now has a remarkable opportunity to step into a car that could potentially challenge for the title.

“It is an amazing feeling to be announced as a Mercedes works driver alongside George for 2025,” he said. “Reaching F1 is a dream I’ve had since I was a small boy; I want to thank the team for the support they’ve given me in my career so far and the faith they’ve shown in me.

“I am still learning a lot, but I feel ready for the opportunity. I will be focused on getting better and delivering the best possible results for the team.
 
“I’m also really excited to become George’s team-mate. He came through the team’s junior programme just like myself and is someone I have a huge amount of respect for. He is super-fast, a multiple Grand Prix winner, and has already helped me improve as a driver. I am looking forward to learning from him and working together to deliver on track.”

Russell added: “I’m really excited to be partnering with Kimi for 2025. His record in junior formula has been formidable and his promotion is truly deserved. He’s a fantastic young talent and a fellow graduate of our junior programme.

“I look forward to using the experience I’ve gained from my own journey to provide guidance to Kimi as he makes the step up to F1. I know how much of a support Lewis was for me throughout my time as a junior driver and since I’ve been his team-mate. I’ve learned so much from him and I hope to play a similar role for Kimi.
 
“As a team, we’re building a lot of positive momentum heading into next year. We continue to make progress on track and are working hard to put all the pieces in place to fight for world championships. It is a really exciting journey we are on; I am confident Kimi and I can continue to push the team forward and help deliver on the promise we are showing.”

Antonelli impressed despite his FP1 crash

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that Kimi Antonelli was “astonishing” in his first public laps in the W15 before crashing early in FP1 at Monza.

Driving George Russell’s car Antonelli was briefly top of the times, and had completed just five laps when he spun into the tyre wall.

The Italian F2 star is tipped to be confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for 2025 as early as Saturday morning.

“He’s okay because the crash was 45g, so that’s important,” said Wolff. “Second priority is to get the car ready for George, so the programme doesn’t suffer too much, which hopefully is going to be okay.

“And the third one, it’s unfortunate, because I guess having had an hour to run, we would have seen some good performances. But that’s what we always said. 

“He’s a rookie. He’s very young. We are prepared to invest into his future. And these moments, they will happen, and they will continue to happen next year, but there would also be a lot of highlights.

“And I think what we’ve seen today was we’d rather have a problem in slowing him down than making him faster. Because what he what we’ve seen from one and a half laps, is just astonishing.”

Asked what Antonelli told the team on his return to the pits Wolff said: “Well, he apologised, first of all. And I think what this is what you need to do when you bring a car back that looks a little bit like a Lego box falling on the floor.

“But he also said that he felt so much confidence , the car was good. I guess he was just bitten. Everybody suffered from, from lots of temperature, and especially rear temperature out of Ascari with these kinds of speeds, and that’s why the rear went away, stepped out.”

Wolff indicated that Antonelli will drive again in FP1 in Mexico City, with street venues and sprint weekends meaning there are few opportunities.

“We haven’t completely decided yet, but I think Mexico,” he said. “I think a strong driver needs to recover from these things and cope with the pressure. 

“And obviously this weekend it wasn’t easy for him, because he still needs to compete in F2, you have all these shenanigans around you in Monza, Italian kid that’s being hyped, first time in a Mercedes, and that must be a heavy burden.

“But if he wants to be a champion one day, he needs to cope with it, and I have no doubt that he can and he will.”

Asked if he felt guilty about being part of the hype building around Antonelli Wolff said: “I think the circumstances are guilty. In our industry, we perfectly understand who is capable, and I think how it all panned out here, he’s jumped F3, he’s pretty much won everything before.

“And then it’s clear, you start to become a Mercedes driver. You’re racing, you testing in FP1, and the same time you’re under the magnifying glass, because it all happens in Monza. And has been a while that an Italian driver was in a top team.

“I’m sure that this can be a lot for an 18-year-old. But I said before he needs to swim, and these days that are so difficult, like it is for him at the moment, it feels certainly terrible and that’s part of the development curve.

“And I don’t want to be the one who picks out great moments and says, well, did you see that sector? Did you see that lap time? Or we could have been third or first or whatever,

“But what we see is there’s performance, and we’ve even seen that in the few laps that we’ve seen.”

Franco Colapinto was preferred over Mick Schumacher

Williams Formula 1 team principal James Vowles insists that academy driver Franco Colapinto was the best replacement for the sacked Logan Sargeant – and he has explained why Mick Schumacher didn’t get the nod.

F2 graduate and Williams academy driver Colapinto was named on Tuesday for the last nine races of the season.

Vowles confirmed that Red Bull’s Liam Lawson was an option, but that didn’t happen because of contractual complications.

It then came down to a straight choice between Colapinto and Mercedes reserve Schumacher.

“So if we go through what our options were available to us, there were sort of three options on the table,” said Vowles. “One was Liam Lawson, one was Mick, and one was Franco.

“With Liam, the contractual position of Red Bull wouldn’t have worked with me here at Williams, so that that didn’t become an option for us in that circumstance. And then it’s a tough choice. It really is.”

Vowles says that Schumacher is a better driver now than he was after his two seasons at Haas, but that improvement still wasn’t enough to justify taking him.

“Mick has improved a lot from where he was in Haas, there is no doubt about it,” he said. “I know that he has had his time, but he’s done incredible work with Alpine, with Mercedes and with McLaren in the meantime.

“And all advocates, if you speak to them, will tell you where he’s adapted and where he’s changed.

“So now the decision is do we put Mick in the car? I think Mick would have done a good job.

“Or do we invest in an individual that’s a part of our academy, that’s done hundreds to thousands of laps in our simulator, that’s driven the car, the only driver to have driven the car this year in FP1?

“And on the data that we can see from what he’s doing and how he’s performing, he’s making significant steps?”

Vowles made his view about Schumacher clear.

“I think we have to be straightforward about this,” he said. “Mick isn’t special. He would just have been good. I think he would come with a lot more experience than Franco does.

“But here’s what I believe in, and what Williams believes in, and what’s at the core values of Williams.

“Williams has always invested in new generations of drivers and youth, and what I’ve been speaking about all the way through is the investment in the future of Williams. And the future of Williams isn’t investing in the past. It’s investing in talent that allows us to move forward as individuals.”

Regarding Sargeant’s departure Vowles said that the American had reached his limit.

“If you speak to every TP up and down the pit lane, no one wants to change a driver mid-season,” he said.

“It’s horrible. It is incredibly tough on the driver. It is tough on the team. It is disruptive, to say the least. And so it’s a good question, why change it now? The cleanest point to have done it would have been at the beginning of the year.

“Logan, at the end of last year, was starting to get within a tenth of Alex and starting to be close.

“And it was good to see his progression. And if that progression continued, we would have a driver, I think, in a very strong place this year. And it didn’t feel like the right point to cut ties as a result of it.

“So the reason now is straightforward. We’ve had enough experience under our belt to know that he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve. And, in fact, it’s almost unfair on him furthermore to continue with it.

“Look at his face when he gets out the car. He’s given you everything he possibly can, and it’s not enough. He absolutely never, from a human perspective, did anything but give me 100% of what he was able to do, but the realisation of where he is on his limits now is very clear.”

Vowles said It would only have got harder for Sargeant as the season went on.

“The relationship can only become more and more difficult across the last nine races towards the end of the year, because he knows what his future holds, which is not to be an F1 anymore,” he said.

“And actually a clean break at that stage feels like the correct decision for all parties. It feels like it’s fair to Logan.

“He won’t feel that way today, but I hope he reflects on it in the future. That is fair towards him in that regard, changing also between a back-to-back race is terrible. It really is an awful thing to do, which hopefully shows you where we are in this. And it wasn’t just to be very clear for everyone.

“It’s not just based on an accident. It was based on in the race. He had all of the parts that Alex had available to him, but the performance wasn’t there. He was lacking in that area, and the gap was almost as big as it was last year.”

Russell says the latest W15 floor is working

George Russell is adamant that the latest Mercedes floor upgrade was not the cause of the team’s difficult Dutch GP weekend.

The floor was tried and abandoned at Spa, and then brought back for Zandvoort after the team felt it had a better understanding of it.

Russell and team mate could Lewis Hamilton manage only seventh and eighth places after a weekend that saw them struggling at times with snap oversteer.

“In Zandvoort we definitely underachieved,” said Russell. “And we have a number of ideas why that was. I think it was a very challenging weekend with the really strong winds, it’s a very old tarmac, a lot of sliding around, and McLaren were exceptional.

“But I hope and we expect this weekend to be slightly more positive after the learnings we took from Zandvoort. 

“It was one of the changes we made to the car that probably we knew was not quite the direction we wanted to go, but it wasn’t quite that obvious in the moment during the race weekend.

“It was only afterwards, when we did the analysis, it was sort of like that’s the area where we lost out, we need to avoid that at all costs moving forward.”

Russell was adamant that the floor was not the issue in the Netherlands.

“I think this weekend will be another good opportunity to test it,” he said. “Ultimately, when you bring an upgrade to the car, you’re talking a tenth or two maximum, but a performance can swing by a number of tenths, race-to-race.

“So if you have an off-weekend which coincides with an upgrade, it’s very, very quick to say, must be the upgrade. But if you do six races in a row with the same package, your performance can fluctuate by half a second compared to your rivals.

“So I’m confident the floor is working as we expect. And I think the problems we faced in Zandvoort weren’t due to the upgrade.

“Now we’ve got another opportunity this weekend, and maybe we conclude something different after Monza, but I’m confident it’s working as we as we think.”

Russell agreed that it was important that the team learned from the data.

“Of course you’ve always got to be honest with yourself, but ultimately, you’ve got to trust the numbers,” he said. 

“If you don’t trust the numbers, you’re in a world of pain. And we go from Zandvoort, that’s high downforce, it was cold, it was windy, to Monza, that’s low downforce, very grippy circuit, C5 tyre.

“It’s sort of not comparable weekend-to-weekend, and even session-to-session, the track evolves probably two seconds across the course of the day when you’ve got F3, F2 the Porsches driving. Even testing in FP1 and changing something for FP2 it’s a totally different session again.”