Italian GP: New track, new colors, new confidence for Ferrari heading into home race at Monza

New track, new colors and renewed confidence for Ferrari as the Formula One team heads into its home race at Monza.

Ferrari did better than expected at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc earning a second straight podium finish and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. surging from 10th on the grid to place fifth.

That was a surprise in what was expected to be a weekend of damage limitation before planned car upgrades at the Italian Grand Prix.

Although it was a well-timed morale boost for a team which started 2024 fighting for wins but had dropped out of contention, Leclerc was quick to temper expectations.

“I don’t let the last two races change our expectations,” he said. “We are in a difficult moment for the team. We are struggling a little bit with pace at the moment.

“I think we understood quite a few things since Zandvoort … it was a good race. In Spa it was good as well. Here, it should be a bit more in the direction of Spa, so hopefully we’ll be a bit more in the fight for the podium. However, for the win, I don’t think we quite have that yet.”

Indeed, Ferrari has only won one of the past 13 editions of the Italian Grand Prix, with Leclerc delighting the passionate red-clad fans in 2019.

Since then the famed Italian Scuderia’s only two podium finishes have been Leclerc’s second place in 2022 before he was beaten to third place by Sainz last year.

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“I wouldn’t say the feeling is that we must do better,” Leclerc said. “However, there’s definitely a huge motivation because it’s not only a normal weekend that starts from the Thursday to the Sunday, but it starts already from Monday in Maranello where we have so many tifosi (fans), and that obviously motivates everybody.

“It seems and it looks like we’ve had a pretty strong car with a very low-downforce package even in the last few years where performance was not as good. That’s positive, because it’s our home race and as much as it’s giving exactly the same amount of points as other races, emotionally speaking and for the whole team it’s definitely a special one.”

Monza is one of the oldest and most historic circuits on the F1 calendar but there have been considerable changes to the Temple of Speed this year.

In modernisation works costing more than 20 million euros ($22 million), the track was completely resurfaced for the first time since 1922 and so will have a much darker appearance. Moreover, some of the iconic kerbs have been modified — much to the dismay of several of the drivers.

“They’ve changed the kerbs,” Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo said on Thursday after inspecting the new look by bicycle. “I went around the track this morning. I can’t say I’m that impressed because some elements have lost some of the character of the circuit.

“Maybe it’s just as a driver, because we drive it and experience it, but kerbs and things like this make a circuit unique … Part of Monza is that it was old school, and now that’s gone. The resurfacing looks great, the asphalt looks really nice, but the kerbs, I’m a bit disappointed in.”

The fans will pack out Monza but in contrast to the sea of red, the Ferrari drivers will wear black racing suits although there will be no major alterations to the livery of the car.

The new look comes after Ferrari decided “to celebrate what represents the state of the art in racing car construction: carbon fiber, a material … which has allowed exceptional advances in safety.”

Verstappen finds himself in an unusual position.

The three-time defending champion is now without a victory in five races — his longest winless run since 2020 — and has seen his lead trimmed to 70 points by McLaren’s Lando Norris, with nine races remaining.

It is a stark contrast to the Italian GP last year when Verstappen secured a record 10th straight win in a crushingly-dominant season for the Red Bull driver.

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“I am enjoying it, yeah. Would I like to win more? Yes, of course. But I also knew that, you know, a season like we had last year is very unrealistic,” Verstappen said at Monza ahead of this year’s edition.

“But did I expect it to be like this? Not really, with, of course, how we ended and how we started. So now it’s up to us to just try and make it better. But I know that everyone is working flat out to make it better.”

Verstappen topped the first hourlong practice session on Friday, ahead of Leclerc and Norris.

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Sainz was fourth, nearly half a second off the pace.

Practice had to be halted for nearly quarter of an hour after teenager Kimi Antonelli crashed in a Mercedes just 10 minutes into his first outing in an F1 car at a race weekend.

Franco Colapinto is in his first proper weekend as Williams race driver, after replacing the axed Logan Sargeant. The Argentine — who drove a practice session for Williams at the British GP last month — was 17th-fastest in the first session at Monza.