One of the storylines heading into this weekend’s Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix was the resurfaced track at Monza. As a few members of the grid found out on Friday, things could get tricky at times. Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s shunt early in FP1 might grab the headlines, but he was not the only driver to find his way off the racing line today.
However, things ran a bit smoother over at Visa Cash App RB F1 Team. Daniel Ricciardo finished up in P12 in the first practice session and crept up a few spots into P8 during the second. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda had a slightly tougher time, finishing 13th in FP1, and 16th in FP2.
Still, both drivers reported that they were comfortable with the track heading into Saturday. Yet, they were both looking for a bit more heading into qualifying.
“It was a good day and the car felt strong. Monza’s a cool track, some circuits you enjoy more than others and this is one. It’s a bit different with the new asphalt, and as we saw with other drivers, grip can be a little hard to find. It’s challenging but fun,” said Ricciardo. “I’m happy with today and think we’ve built a good foundation for the weekend. There’s not much to change overnight, we understand the car and we’re in a good place. I felt a good level of comfort in the car, but there’s always something more to find.”
While Tsunoda indicated that things were more “difficult” on his side of the garage, he still expressed some optimism following the two practice sessions.
“It was a bit of a difficult day for us, and I think there are still a lot of things to understand. There have been a few changes to the track, it’s been resurfaced which felt smoother and nice to drive,” said Tsunoda. “Also, the curbs have changed, allowing us to drive slightly more aggressively. It was just the first day; the engineers will have a look through the data overnight and hopefully, we’ll find some room to improve ahead of tomorrow.”
Racing Director Alan Permane blamed an “error” in setting up Tsunoda’s RB01 for his tougher practice sessions.
“A decent day for us but there’s a little bit of a difference across our cars. Daniel finished the day reasonably happy with his balance, but there is still some margin to improve,” said Permane. “It’s always difficult here in Monza, with the low downforce, when the cars have less grip in the corners and are skating about. As for Yuki, he didn’t have a great FP2 because we made an error in the set up with his car and we apologise to him for that. His Medium run was compromised and when the set-up was correct, he could not set a representative time on his Soft tyres as there was the red flag. He’s got too much oversteer, so we will work on that overnight for FP3.”
At the moment VCARB is locked in a tight battle with Haas for sixth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, and they hold a seven-point lead in that fight. Time will tell which team — if either — can take a step forward in that fight this weekend in Monza.
