Mika Häkkinen: Italian Grand Prix Preview

Hot Topic

Lando Norris’s second win of the season in Zandvoort last weekend confirms that McLaren are not only competitive on every type of track, but that the team of design engineers back at the team’s headquarters are continuing to deliver performance with every upgrade they bring.  It’s a real team effort to develop this kind of successful engineering process and it brings a huge amount of confidence to a team.  Good engineering processes win World Championship titles.

Although Oscar Piastri said his 4th-placed finish was a little disappointing, that shows the expectation both he and the team have every weekend.  They expect both cars to be finishing in podium places, a sign of just how much confidence they have in the MCL38 car.

McLaren is now only 30 points behind Red Bull Racing in the World Championship for Constructors which means that McLaren can absolutely win that title. Remember that it is the Constructors’ title which decides how much prize money the team receives. From a business point of view it is much more important than the Drivers’ title.  Winning the Drivers’ title puts a big smile on a driver’s face, winning the Constructors’ title makes the team boss happy!

The ability of Lando and Checo to bring home a strong points finish every weekend is critical.  Although Checo Perez had a much better weekend in Zandvoort, and Max Verstappen was able to salvage second place after making a strong start and leading the race, Red Bull must be worried about McLaren’s performance and consistency.

 

Personally I believe that Lando and Oscar now represent a stronger, more consistent driver line-up.  I said before Zandvoort that the big danger for Max Verstappen and Red Bull is that they face a 2 against 1 battle. As long as that continues to be the case in the fight for podium finishes both World Championships are open to change with nine Grands Prix remaining.

The exciting thing for McLaren is that both Lando and Oscar feel they and the team can continue to improve.  One area they are focusing on is the launch, the way the cars perform right at the start of the race.  In Zandvoort that was poor on both cars, so all the hard work of qualifying on pole position and P3 was slightly wasted in the first two hundred metres of the race.

Take Note

Formula 1 is a very tough environment and this week we have seen that again with the Williams team replacing Logan Sargeant with Formula 2 race winner Franco Colapinto.  I know Logan’s fan will be disappointed.  He is America’s only driver in the World Championship, but unfortunately his performance has not come close enough to matching that of team mate Alex Albon. His two big accidents in Japan and Netherlands were expensive mistakes.

When you are promoted to Formula 1 there is a natural feeling that you have ‘arrived’, but in fact it is only the start of your journey.  It takes time to learn, develop and prove yourself as a top driver and, if you cannot deliver the results, there are a lot of young drivers waiting to take your place.  

 

One thing that all the teams have to deal with this weekend is a completely resurfaced track.  It is smooth, of course, but also darker than the older surface and Pirelli has already warned that tyre temperatures could suffer, particularly with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30’s being forecast.

Mika’s Tip

A quarter of the drivers in F1 have won the Italian Grand Prix including Daniel Ricciardo taking his win for McLaren in 2021 and Pierre Gasly scoring a surprise victory for Alpha Tauri in 2020.  It is World Champion Max Verstappen who has won for the last two years but, while I expect two other winners, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, to be competitive, it is clear the McLarens will again be pushing for the win. It’s going to be close at the front!

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