2015 Italian Grand Prix - Monza, September 4 - 6

[GPR-A duplicate2]

2015 Italian GP - Autodromo Nazionale Monza

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Belgium race thread got converted to PIRELLI TYRES thread, so thought it would be a good idea to pull the attention to next race.

[f1316]

Nice pic at the top Love the banking and always interesting seeing the covered wheels of the Merc vs open wheel cars (I'm guessing a Ferrari, Maserati or Alfa maybe in the background?)

Probably be a similar kind of story this weekend - i.e. Mercedes way out in front. I think it's increasingly clear - given Canada and Spa - that when maximum straight line speed is needed, Mercedes PU is still way in the lead. Red Bull seem to have to remove a lot more downforce to get a reasonable top speed but Ferrari also much the same, and though they're likely to use a couple of tokens, it now seems they're saving the bulk til later in the season in order to benefit next year.

Shame because I love Monza but I think it's going to be whitewash, as I also don't think Rosberg is a patch on Hamilton round here.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

I think it could be a very good race again, because of Mercedes weak starts. Add a strong Ferrari and we can see great battles during the race.

[SiLo]

There weren't too many bad starts at Spa to be honest. Rosberg might be worried because he got a bit of a crap one, the same start in Monza would put him much further down than it did in Spa.

[iotar__]

Belgium race thread got converted to PIRELLI TYRES thread, so thought it would be a good idea to pull the attention to next race.

Yeah let's leave the tyres alone: I wonder if Ferrari is brewing some extra tyre destroying set up and aggressive kerb driving to prove their point, at least in practice .

Now seriously: I forgot they went with medium - soft which means two stops and maybe some headache for Williams. Although they claim it's not same top speed driven car with hard-medium it would have been a good track for them. Now it's probably Merc ------ Ferrari - Williams.

[ME4ME]

Ferrari's pace was a disappointment at SPA. I expect the same in Monza, no matter the PU upgrades. The more the season goes on, the more I think their chassi isn't actually that good. I expect Vettel 3rd or 4th and Raikkonen no higher then 6th. The Red Bulls will start from the back because of their penalties, so I don't see them challenging for 3rd either (would be a longo shot anyway). So probably HAM-ROS-BOT-VET-GRO-MAS-RAI-PER-RIC or something like that. Should be interesting to see if McHonda have made any progress in it's ERS deployment software.

[Juzh]

The more the season goes on, the more I think their chassi isn't actually that good.

Yeah, they just won in hungary and were 2nd fastest car easily (faster than rosberg). Such bad chassis indeed.

[PlatinumZealot]

I am expecting force india and torro rosso to surprise here. Ricciardo is also very good around here. That nasty overtake on sebastian is still etched into my mind.

Oh lotus might actually be a threat for podium too if maldonando doesn't get to the first chicane before Grojean does.

[giantfan10]

The more the season goes on, the more I think their chassi isn't actually that good.

Yeah, they just won in hungary and were 2nd fastest car easily (faster than rosberg). Such bad chassis indeed.

On the tracks where engine power is god the mercedes engined cars with an average chassis are actually competitive.
i suspect Force india and lotus will be competitive again at Monza with that merc engine driving them with next to no downforce needed at that track... then reality will set in at singapore where the cars that actually have a good chassis will again be at the front ...Red Bull Mercedes and Ferrari.
IMHO this is just more evidence of where the mercedes advantage really is...they are the only team with the merc engine and a competitive chassis

[iotar__]

Oh lotus might actually be a threat for podium too if maldonando doesn't get to the first chicane before Grojean does.

What does it even mean? Lotus can't afford regular updates and Monza requires special preparation and aero. Although tyre choice made two tracks closer (Kvyat even ran with Monza type wing I think?) Monza won't be a copy.

As for Ferrari these are Silverstone before the rain reactions. It's a car that matched or was easily close to Mercedes' race pace on many different tracks. Engine situation might be different now but how do you explain Bahrain? In Spa which is a long track it was 0,288 from the third place with obvious circumstances. Based on previous sessions and sector times in Q it could have been third and quick enough to stay there.

No one expects them to beat Merc but they can be the second best team depending on Williams and engine updates.

[PlatinumZealot]

Remove elements is the cheapest way. Lotus certainly will do this for their monza tune. Should be effective if done right. Rear wing can be transplanted from last years.

[Vary]

Oh lotus might actually be a threat for podium too if maldonando doesn't get to the first chicane before Grojean does.

"If maldonado doesn't get a Liuzzi 2011"

[ME4ME]

The more the season goes on, the more I think their chassi isn't actually that good.

Yeah, they just won in hungary and were 2nd fastest car easily (faster than rosberg). Such bad chassis indeed.

I was more thinking about how far off Ferrari they still seem to be compared to Mercedes and certainly not closing the gap at the moment. But if you want to play the ranking game, and we'd give others Mercedes engines, I personally believe that Red Bull would far ahead, and Toro Rosso pretty much even with Ferrari. To me SPA was dissapointing, and let's not kid ourselves, Mercedes would have crushed Ferrari in Hungary as well if it hadn't been for their bad starts.

I like Ferrari to be right up there, don't get me wrong. I very much hope their PU upgrade will over-deliver on expectations rather than going the McHonda away, and.. well you know the story

[Jolle]

Looking as sheer speed, it would surprise me if the first 2 starting positions wouldn't be taken by Mercedes. But looking at the last few starts, even in Spa, somehow they can't get away as fast as Williams or Ferrari. Hamilton would have been in a lot of trouble if La Source was a couple of 100 meters further from the start line.

so... Q: Ham, Ros, Bot, Mas, after the first chicane: Bot, Mas, Vet, Ham and then, further back down: Ros....

And the first half of the race a very frustrated Ham stuck behind Mas.....