Max Verstappen points to the unknown to rescue Red Bull at the 2024 Italian GP thanks to various track changes at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza removing some of the historical data teams have.
As one of the regular fixtures on the Formula 1 calendar, teams have plenty of information about how the tyres behave at the circuit and how the cars like to perform mechanically and aerodynamically.
Even the youngest team on the grid, Ayao Komatsu‘s Haas, have eight years’ of experience at this Grand Prix since their debut in the 2016 F1 season.
But that could all be set to change thanks to a new track surface as well as changes to Turns 1 and 2 as well as the Ascari chicane (Turns 8-10) changing how drivers will attack the Monza circuit.
So for Verstappen, this could be key to giving Red Bull an advantage over their rivals at the track they won at in 2022 and 2023 as he desperately bids to stay ahead of Lando Norris and McLaren in the F1 championship and claim his first win in five races.
“Let’s see,” Verstappen said to members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com, of Red Bull‘s chances at the 2024 Italian GP. “You can’t really go off previous years because the timing is different.
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“Some corners are a bit different also with the kerbs and just the layout of the corner. So I guess time will tell so we’ll see with the downforce levels and stuff that you need now. All the references I would say are a bit gone around.
“I think the biggest issue that we had here was just the grip was very low. So I think just a resurface would have been already very good, maybe even out a few kerbs because they were quite wavy.
“I would say let’s see how it feels because Ascari, for example, looks completely different to what it was. I won’t know if it’s better or worse until the first drive.”
What are the changes for the 2024 Italian GP?
The new track will be interesting for drivers straight out of the blocks as the Monza circuit should be less rubbered in, meaning grip will be lower and harder for the drivers to navigate when their 1000bhp cars try to step out from under them.
But the first visible change is at Turn 1 and 2, named the Variante del Rettifilo, which now sees a far deeper run off area as well as the abandoning of the sausage kerbs on the entry and exit of the chicane.
In theory, this should make the corner faster since the drivers can attack it more directly but if they go wheel to wheel they are also less likely to run off the track too. This will allow them to go deeper into the corner to continue their battles to hopefully promote more overtaking.
Likewise, the kerbs have also been flattened at the Variante della Roggia (Turns 4 and 5) which will have a similar effect of allowing the drivers to attack the corner more directly and on paper reduce the lap-time.
Additionally, there is now gravel in the run-off zone instead of grass to punish drivers who make an error after multiple examples of a driver managing to gain an advantage by going off, whilst the huge yellow kerbs have also been abandoned to avoid the risk of floor damage from hard racing.
Meanwhile at the Variante Ascari (Turns 8-10), the exit has been significantly widened with reprofiled kerbs which should create a far faster slingshot out of the sequence of corners and onto the straight in the run up to the Parabolica corner.
Finally, banking at the Lesmo corners (Turns 6 and 7) has also been introduced allowing the drivers to carry slightly more speed through the rapid right-hand kinks onto the DRS straight which will also cause the lap-time to drop.
It’s likely a new track record will be set this weekend but multiple drivers have already voiced their scepticism at the changes to the historic circuit, which as hosted the Italian GP in every year since 1950 except for 1980.
RB‘s Daniel Ricciardo, Mercedes’ George Russell, Williams’ Alex Albon and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon didn’t seem to be fans early doors despite making one of the fastest circuits in the world even faster.
