Antonelli And Colapinto Make Debuts At Monza

It was quite an interesting afternoon of free practice for the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza circuit. The 20 drivers were able to assess the completely new track surface, which is proving to be considerably quicker than the previous one: there’s a difference of a second between the FP1 sessions from this year to 2023, six-tenths comparing FP2.

Lewis Hamilton was quickest overall in 1’20”738 in his Mercedes, followed by Lando Norris in the McLaren who was just a whisker off, with three-thousandths separating the two cars. Confirming how close the gaps this season continue to be, the fastest five, who are the only ones to get under the 1’21” barrier, are covered by a mere 154 thousandths of a second: behind the previously mentioned top two came Carlos Sainz (Ferrari, 1’20”841), Oscar Piastri (McLaren, 1’20”858) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, 1’20”892). Andrea Kimi Antonelli made his first appearance in an official Formula 1 session. However, the Mercedes driver only did five laps before crashing into the barriers at the Parabolica. Also making his debut, Franco Colapinto is now an official Williams race driver, after driving in FP1 at Silverstone, with the same team. The last time an Argentinian raced in Formula 1 dates back to the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, when Gaston Mazzacane drove for Prost.

The C3 has not made many friends so far this weekend. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) was the only driver to use the Hard over the first two hours of free practice. All 19 other drivers preferred to save the hardest of the three compounds for the coming days, most likely for Sunday. So the Medium and Softs did most of the work, with the C4 preferred over the long runs in the second session, by almost all drivers because the C5 has shown itself to be a qualifying tyre.

Franco Colapinto

“I’m very proud to have completed my first Friday as a Formula 1 driver. There are things to work on with the team but overall, it was a good first day. Instead of going for lap times, I focused on myself by building up everything throughout the sessions. I was careful in FP1 as I wanted to put the laps in. On the long runs, I’m still trying to understand how to keep the tyre alive for longer and find that sweet spot. I felt a lot more comfortable in FP2 as I was trying to find the limit and was more consistent which was a good step for my confidence. I’m super grateful to everyone in the team for helping me get up to speed this weekend.”

Kimi Antonelli

“It’s been quite a day here in Monza. Unfortunately, my first FP1 session ended quite quickly with a big crash. It was measured at 52G, so it was a heavy one. I am not feeling 100% so I will have an easy night this evening and rest ahead of the rest of the weekend. I am sorry to the team and to George as it is not how we wanted the hour to go. It was a pure mistake from my side where I was pushing just a bit too hard for the conditions. I should have built into the speed more progressively and it is something I will learn from.
 
“I am still thankful to the team for making it possible for me to drive in FP1. It was great to drive in front of the tifosi and be on track with all the other drivers.”

Lewis Hamilton – Fastest in FP2

“I’m happy that Kimi was OK as that was a big accident. The main thing that matters is that he was OK. In terms of our car performance, it’s been a good day. This new tarmac and the smoother kerbs have presented an interesting challenge, but the car has felt good from the start. There seemed to be some graining up and down the field in FP1 and people struggling with the tyres. We made some solid changes ahead of FP2 and the car took a step forward in that final hour. There’s still some work for us to do overnight both here and at the factory, particularly around the long run, so we can be as competitive as possible over the rest of the weekend.”

Max Verstappen – Fastest in FP1

“We tried quite a few things today, FP1 felt decent and then FP2 we had good learnings from the long run. This track is aggressive on tyres, so it will be quite interesting how the track will evolve for the race as well. We were trying different setups in both sessions but couldn’t get it locked. At the end of the day, that is what practice is for and we want to learn a bit more about the car. We have a few good directions to take with the setup, we just need to tidy everything up a bit. It is going to be quite close between a few teams, and hopefully we will be right in that mix tomorrow in Qualifying.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“There have been plenty of interesting points this Friday. The big unknown going into the weekend was the state of the all new track surface, which is the main novelty of this Italian Grand Prix. From what we could see today, we can say that the results of prior simulations were generally confirmed, with a very significant level of adhesive grip. This factor, combined with this track requiring a low aerodynamic load, may have accentuated the graining effect which was quite marked on both compounds used. Obviously, we have no real indications regarding the Hard, as just one driver used it to complete only 17 laps. However, this is a clear indication of the direction in which the teams might go with regard to tyre usage over the rest of the weekend. At this track, the length of the pit lane and the time taken to change tyres means that a two-stop strategy comes with quite a penalty, so the most likely scenario is that the teams will still try to manage the Medium and the Hard so as to do just one pit stop, keeping a second hard set for a potential Plan B if degradation because of graining is still very significant in the race.

“It is therefore a question of graining: we will have to see how the track evolves as from tomorrow morning, the more laps the Formula 1 cars and those of the other categories do and the track rubbers in. Another important factor to consider will be the temperatures. It was very hot today with the track reaching 54 °C, theoretically at about the time of the middle of the race on Sunday. Such high temperatures could have a further impact on degradation. We have seen that the track is quicker than last year and it became even more so during the sessions, more significantly during FP1, a bit less so in FP2. It will be interesting to see what will happen in this regard tomorrow, starting in FP3.”