“Happy Fun Times.”
Hey folks, it’s once again that time to dip my head into the well of Motorsport as it’s time for another Dre’s Race Review, and first up as we enter September, it’s time for one of F1’s big ones, the Italian Grand Prix from Monza, the Cathedral of Speed. And with it, we got Max Verstappen making yet more history with a dominant display, and McLaren finding new and exciting methods of tripping over their own dicks. Let’s get into it.
The Fastest Man On Earth
Well move over Usain Bolt. Let’s get the flower ceremony out of the way first because Max Verstappen beat the brakes off the field in Monza. We could tell in practice that McLaren definitely looked a bit more vulnerable than they normally do – Choosing to go with a higher downforce setup meant giving up a good 3-4 miles per hour on the straights, and it was enough to bring more aggressive team setups from Red Bull and Ferrari into play.
More on the prancing honse later, but Red Bull had a more top-speed heavy setup, and were confident to actually shave their rear wing down for extra top end heading into Saturday. And it resulted in the fastest lap in Formula 1 history from Verstappen to take pole – 1:18.792 at an average speed of 164 miles per hour. Turns out McLaren genuinely were vulnerable, and Ferrari had turned their engines up early and given people some false hope.
We had another Norris/Verstappen battling flashpoint into Turn 1, with Max taking to the escape road after Norris slammed the door in his face at the opening chicane. I think both men knew what they were doing, Norris using the rules to his advantage and Max letting the stewards make a call again – Only this time GP was on the radio and told Max to give it back. It ultimately didn’t matter as Max got back around a few laps later, and didn’t really stop from there.
It was a game of a thousand cuts as Max put two tenths a lap on Norris throughout what ended up being a strange opening stint. Gone were the days of Monza being a tire shredder. Even in 2024, Leclerc was the only 1-stopping trend bucker and it paid off. The C4’s this season had Max going 37 laps for a switch to the Hard tire at the end. Once again, if we have a race tire that can comfortably go 80% of the race distance, what are we doing here?
McLaren knew the only way they had a shot of the win was by switching to a used set of soft tyres at the end, and it was Max’s pace that forced them into that position. It was masterful driving from what has been a bizarre run of form from Red Bull as a whole. In Hungary, Max was 72 seconds behind the winner. 21 back in his second home race in Belgium. But here, not only does he smoke the McLaren team that’s won 11 of 15 in 2025, but he did it was the biggest winning margin of the season so far, just shy of 20 seconds. Career Win #66 and while a Championship looks very unlikely, he’s still more than good enough to be an antagonist in this plot. Joey Wheeler to Yugi and Seto, but now dressed in orange. Speaking of…
A Not-So-Simple Concept
I have deep respect for McLaren. Sincerely, I do. This MCL39 is rapidly heading towards all-timer status in the pantheon of F1’s history. But man did they make a horlicks of this one, even if it was just a modest 2-3 on the day.
Lando Norris was comfortably ahead of Oscar Piastri on the road by a good three seconds. Lando was set to come in first for a set of softs, the last roll of the dice, but Lando said to box Piastri to avoid the risk of an undercut by Charles Leclerc in 4th. McLaren obliged, but on Lando’s stop, the left front wheelgun didn’t work properly. Lando lost four seconds in the box, and came out behind Piastri.
But then Piastri’s told to concede the position, and then after that, he’d be free to attack. Piastri was reluctant, citing the “luck” of racing, but ultimately did give the position back. Piastri didn’t have enough extra pace to counter-attack, and ultimately finished third to Lando in second.
I hated this on so many levels. But I need Zak Brown and Andrea Stella to wrap their noggins around a simple concept:
MOTORSPORT. ISN’T. FAIR.
I agree with the tweets in that this wasn’t a Hungary 2024 situation because Norris as a fringe contender at best at the time, and Piastri was even further back, but the principle is similar – Lando was asked to cough up a victory because of the “fairness” of McLaren screwing up strategy on their final round of pitstops.
But this was another level of trying to “balance the books”. You’re asking Oscar Piastri, while in second, to effectively give up a six-point swing in the standings because YOUR pitcrew had a technical problem that had nothing to do with their drivers. And then Oscar actually goes through with it?! WHAT?!
As many have said, this isn’t 2024 – where McLaren’s chances never really progressed beyond “slim”. This is now your two men as the ONLY World Championship contenders, and what the team is doing is the complete opposite of productive. By going to such huge extremes to try and balance the books via team orders – the necessary evil F1 loves to hate, it’s actually fuelled more people’s beliefs that the team is favouring one driver over the other, rather than letting an unfortunate situation play out.
Don’t get me wrong, I think anyone claiming there’s a bias are bathing in tinfoil right now, but the team is doing themselves no favours in the process and are showing that despite their success, they still struggle when everything isn’t going their way.
This is far, far too much effort for the sake of keeping the vibes. This is a World Championship on the line, not a Nursery playdate.
The Lightning Round
And it doubly sucks for Lando Norris – Who was unfairly boo’d because he was the benefactor of a team orders call. A reminder for those in sandwich wrapping – This is the same McLaren that asked him to GIVE UP A WIN 14 months ago.
Stefano Domenicalli made some interesting comments this week about the future of race weekends, including the possibility of less practice, reverse grid Sprint races, and even the possibility of shortening races in the future. I don’t hate the first two ideas – You’ll never convince me that we need three hours of practice in a race weekend, and I’ve always said the Sprint is fine if you’re more radical with the format, but saying we need to protect “young fans attention spans”, feels like code.
First of all, with what proof? Second of all, it’s always been bullshit, we don’t need to be condensing our content1 – I know people that will spend hours watching their favourite streamers on YouTube and Twitch. No, I think the way we consume media has changed. We’re more likely to check our phones, have a second screen, get social media reactions in real time because sports and instant gratification go hand-in-hand, or have it on while doing something else. F1, a sport often littered with minutes of downtime in a relatively short event, is perfect for this climate.
Nah – F1 wants the cake of social media and its rampant pivot-to-video and eating it too via keeping its sport ludicrously inaccessible and expensive. Reminder: It’s £36/$50 a month in the latest Premier League season. Over £300 a season to legally watch 24 Grand Prix. Stuff that in your highlight reel videos.
Speaking of which, this was also the fastest F1 race of all-time – 73 minutes from bell-to-bell and an incredible average speed of 155 miles per hour. Rapid.
Running out of patience with Ferrari too – Hamilton had a 5-place grid penalty because his silly self only dropped 10mph in a Double Waved Yellow on the way to the grid, but then Ferrari didn’t use him to tow Leclerc, their best shot at pole position, and instead, it was the other way around. And then after all of that, not even a car on the podium at their home race. What a waste of a special livery, and as a reminder of Fred Vasseur’s shortcomings this season, McLaren have a match point for the Constructors in Baku in two weeks time2.
Ollie Bearman didn’t deserve a penalty in my opinion for his collision with Carlos Sainz, but once again, the letter of the law states that if the outside car is wing-mirror alongside, he gets the corner, and Sainz learned his lesson from last week. Bearman now needs to be really careful as he’s now on 10 penalty points. One more driver-induced penalty and he’ll be banned for a race.
If we put them all on the track at the same time, who’d get into an accident first between Arvid Lindblad, Alex Dunne and Liam Lawson every time he gets a boner trying to pass a Red Bull? (It saved Yuki Tsunoda from being plastered over being out of the points in a race that Max dominated, floor damage at Monza is catastrophic.)
The Verdict: 4/10 (Poor) – Yeah, no dramatic moments to save you this time. This was dull, even by Monza standards. Max won at a canter, McLaren drama was only skin deep, and there wasn’t much else to report beyond that up and down the order. Go find the F3 Feature Race instead. See you in Baku.
