Verstappen's F1 hippodrome: Goin' up, goin' down in Italy

F1

Verstappen ticked off yet another win with his branded Red Bull marker pen in Monza – where will he start Singapore from?

Valtter-Bottas-at-the-2022-Italian-GP-at-Monza

This is the only time Bottas and Zhou will appear in this column

Alfa Romeo

Author

James Elson

The F1 hippodrome is booming: Max Verstappen is treating 2022 like some kind of grand prix bingo card, ticking off the different positions he can win from.

Seventh? 10th? 14th? It doesn’t matter really. You feel he should just start from the pitlane just to give us all a bit more of a laugh.

The inevitability of Sunday afternoon in Monza was alleviated by some charges through the field, after a penalty system which appears to have hit its logical conclusion by reaching peak absurdity. Who was starting where? Not even F1 knew.

Here’s what was going up and down at the Temple of Speed.

 

Goin’ down

The graphic we never knew we didn’t need

Really upset to see my parents’ old Fiat Multipla get it in the neck from Crofty. #Insights.

 

DRS train misery

DRS-train-of-cars-at-the-2022-Italian-GP-Monzajpg

All aboard!

Alex Pantling - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

The 2020 and 2021 Italian GPs were fascinating case studies in races which threw up unexpected results but still managed to be mostly boring anyway.

2022 was just reassuringly dull from start to finish – even Ferrari couldn’t find a way to make it exciting in some kind of home capitulation, Leclerc just quietly getting out of the way with a second scheduled stop.

F1 could ban DRS at Monza to stop the trains forming, but this could potentially make things even worse. Perhaps only let the second car in the train have DRS within a certain time limit?

 

Not going to El Plan

Alpine-F1-driver-Fernando-Alonso-at-the-2022-Italian-GP-at-Monza

Just wait till you drive next year’s Aston Fernando…

Alpine

Alonso could feel there was an issue with his Alpine before the team could see it in telemetry. His reaction when his soon-to-be ex-employers told him it couldn’t see an issue? “Wow.”

 

Aston Misery

Both Silverstone machines were slow, then broke down. Only way is up from here…

 

Goin’ Up

Pantomime villain

Burning £80 Mercedes baseball hats might be going a bit far, but nothing wrong with fans booing winner Max Verstappen after the race.

Thumbs up for pantomime partisan antics.

 

De Vries dub

Nyck De Vries interrupted his morning espresso to save the day for Williams on Saturday and then Sunday.

Turns up in quali and puts it in Q2 before scoring two points in the race, probably banishing Nicholas Latifi to IndyCar which he’ll ruin for the next few years.

You can already see him stalling his Dale Coyne DW12 somewhere halfway round Mid-Ohio, bringing out another ‘caution’…

 

Scenic surroundings

It might not have been a thriller, but with ever more car parks and Middle-Eastern TilkeDromes on the calendar, there’s something reassuring watching F1 cars blast through parkland in Northern Italy.

Even pictures featuring a crane and a portaloo look good.

 

Last chance saloon

It may increasingly appear as if Mick Schumacher is about to be ejected by Haas into the F1 ether with a cheery wave from Guenther, but at least he’s going out in style.

This thrilling dive on Latifi had to be move of the race.

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