The F1x

• The In Lap

  • Papaya rules

  • Charles wins and Tifosi bring the vibes

  • Colapinto has great showing

  • Valtteri P22

• Overheard in the Paddock

  • Tough start for Antonelli in FP1 and Toto comments

  • Antonelli confirmed at Mercedes

  • Kimi Raikkonen in the paddock

  • Kmag suspended for Baku

• A Quick Look Ahead

The In Lap

“Papaya Rules” and Charles Leclerc both helped deliver a fantastic race day in Monza.

Lando and Piastri delivered during qualifying, and going into Sunday, we couldn’t help but think about what would happen if Piastri got ahead of Lando during the race and whether we would see team orders… well, we didn’t have to wait long to find out.

First of all, it has to be said that Lando has had 7 P1 starts and has yet to lead the opening lap. He needs to figure out whatever is wrong with his starts.

“Papaya Rules” = race each other, but not too closely or aggressively? I think it is safe to say that leaves some room for interpretation, for both the fans and the McLaren drivers…

You can never knock a racing driver to go for the gap is they see one, and Piasti’s move was very impressive but a tad risky. At this point it seemed apparent McLaren meant it when they say they aren’t prioritizing one driver. After the race we got a slightly different story now and I think the team boss’s are realizing they need more structure and certainty in their race plans.

Side note: There has been no safety car in the past 7 races…

In the end, the day belonged to Charles. He executed an amazing one-stop strategy that no other drivers at the front thought possible given the amount of tire degradation.

For Leclerc to have his two wins this year at Monaco and Monza, you couldn’t find two more meaningful races for him, and it really is great to see.

The scenes on the track during the trophy ceremony were enough to give everyone chills. As Nico Rosberg pointed out during the celebration, the fans were lined up shoulder to shoulder for more than a kilometer down the start/finish straight.

Franco Colapinto came in a very respectable P12 for his first race. Monza is an “easier” track to debut on in F1, but it was still a great first showing for him in the Williams.

With that result, Valtteri Bottas is now P22 in the drivers' championship… yikes.

Overheard in the Paddock

It was a rough start to FP1 for Kimi Antonelli after spinning out and putting the Mercedes into the wall at Parabolica. We know it’s a tough corner, as the safety car crashed there the day before during some testing!

Some insights from Toto Wolff following the Antonelli incident:

“Most important is to hire based on ability. An FP1 that goes wrong is not a reason to decide for or against a driver.”

“He’s a rookie; he's very young. We're prepared to invest in his future. These moments will happen, and they will continue to happen next year, but there will also be a lot of highlights.”

But in the end all of the rumours were confirmed with Antonelli and Mercedes making it official that the 18 year old will be taking over the seat from Hamilton next season.

A post race interview between Zak Brown and Nico Rosberg gave us some answers and insight into the McLaren boss’s thoughts on the need for team orders and the aggressive lap 1 overtake. It was great to see Nico ask the direct questions we are all wondering.

Zak also put out this tweet after the race.

Kimi Raikkonen was back in the Ferrari paddock this weekend looking as cool as one can.

A final talking point from the weekend is that Kevin Magnussen now has reached the maximum of 12 penalty points and will have a 1 race ban, meaning he will be missing Azerbaijan next time out.

The most obvious and likely scenario is that Ollie Bearman steps into the seat since he will be racing for the team next year.

A Quick Look Ahead

We get a week without F1 sadly before returning to Azerbaijan and it’s capital city Baku for a street circuit race on the Caspian sea.