Fighting Ferraris: Return of Monza red mist that cost Räikkönen & Vettel

Once Perez had finally wore out Sainz’s resources to put Red Bull 1-2, Carlos was left exposed on rubber which had taken the battle to superior opposition, exposed to team-mate Leclerc who’d not chosen to fight Perez too hard, who’d given his tyres an easier time as Sainz refused to surrender. What followed in the closing stages was a wonderful gloves-off battle – between Ferrari team-mates at Monza – but from the team’s perspective this was perilous. Sainz in turn may have felt aggrieved that the pitwall did not switch off Leclerc’s attack on him, given how Carlos had done the heavy lifting all weekend and was only vulnerable now through refusing to give up for so long. But if he was, he didn’t let it show, just continued to fight for all he was worth, even if that meant a rude chop across the other Ferrari’s nose into Rettifilo for the final time, forcing Leclerc to swerve around the other side to avoid contact.

In trying not to show favouritism between its drivers, Ferrari had got itself into a situation. This time it all ended without tears or recriminations. But it had been tense. It’s a situation it has got itself into several times in recent Monza history, as if paralysed by the emotional weight. In this Vasseur was just following in the footsteps of Mattia Binotto (with Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel in 2019) or Maurizio Arrivabene (with Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen in 2018). This latter was perhaps the most intricately delicate of all the team’s Monza dilemmas in recent years. It came as the team was fighting to keep its title hopes alive with Vettel, but with a very awkward dynamic behind the scenes – because Räikkönen, potentially Vettel’s support in the battle against Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, was not being retained into 2019 but hadn’t been told yet.

Ferrari loved Räikkönen. It was also enamoured with Leclerc, the rookie then at Sauber but under Ferrari’s management. He’d been earmarked as the team’s future, the driver to take it into the next era and a place had been promised for him there from 2019. Ferrari boss Arrivabene and Vettel were not in love. Their relationship was one of sometimes barely concealed resentment. But Vettel was the guy in contract and also potentially the 2018 world champion. So there was no room at Ferrari for Räikkönen in ’19. Kimi was no fool, could see all this coming. But into the Monza weekend he’d still not been told anything.

Even more awkwardly, this weekend it was Räikkönen’s turn for towing priority. Under team agreement, he and Vettel took turns from race to race in being assigned priority. At some tracks it was irrelevant but at Monza the tow was worth significant lap time. Vettel, despite being the one fighting for the championship, would be towing Räikkönen in qualifying, not the other way around! Under the circumstances, it seemed no-one within Ferrari’s management had the heart to tell Räikkönen otherwise, leaving Vettel trying to grab a tow from somewhere else.

The plan for the final Q3 runs was they’d leave the garages together, Vettel ahead, as soon as Hamilton’s Merc left the Merc garage next door. That way, Vettel could pick up the tow from the Mercedes and Kimi would get the tow – as agreed – from Vettel. Except there was a delay in the final preparations in Vettel’s garage and by the time he got out, there was a slower car in between Hamilton and himself and by the time he’d passed it, Hamilton was out of towing range. He did his lap but perhaps his irritation played its part in it being a scrappy one. “It wasn’t good at the first chicane,” he recounted, “the second chicane, the Lesmos – everywhere basically! I’m lucky I stayed second rather than third.” As for the operational shortfall, he wasn’t up for talking about it, but later allowed: “I addressed the people concerned and made my point.”

Kimi? He got a beautiful tow from Vettel and stuck it on pole. At 163.675mph it was the fastest lap in F1 history up to that time. He’d picked up around 0.3sec from the Vettel tow and was on pole by 0.161sec – from Vettel (i.e. without the tow, Vettel was faster, as usual, just further highlighting the ridiculous situation Ferrari had got itself into). Complicating matters even further, as Seb pointed out: “Kimi is on pole so that means he is allowed to fight for the win.” That was almost certainly a reference to a Räikkönen contractual stipulation.

Ferrari seemed to be doing everything it could to stumble out of title contention despite having the fastest car at Monza. It then went one step further – by informing Räikkönen on race morning that he would be released at the end of the year.

He and Vettel were friends but he was in no mood to help the cause on the first lap of the race; it was every man for himself and Kimi felt he could win this. He wasn’t going to be getting many more opportunities to win, after all.

That whole backdrop of internal politics and personal dynamics, under the spotlight glare of Monza, influenced what played out on the crucial opening lap. Räikkönen and Vettel led Hamilton through the first chicane. Up through Curva Grande Vettel was slipstreaming Räikkönen, Hamilton was slipstreaming them both. Räikkönen, with the racecraft borne of 18 years in F1, shrewdly backed off early for the Roggia chicane, forcing Vettel to do the same. “I had to get out of it otherwise it would have been a nasty one,” was how he phrased it. Räikkönen had essentially given him the choice of backing off or taking both Ferraris out on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix. This allowed Hamilton to go around Vettel’s outside into the first part of the chicane. No doubt flustered, Vettel refused to back out of it and the two cars touched, the Ferrari spinning to a halt with floor and wing damage before continuing. Hamilton was unaffected and set off in chase of Räikkönen.