Red Bull delivered on their car’s potential by using aggressive strategies for both their drivers. But it led to their drivers fighting for position at the end of the race.
As there is little rewards for deviating from a one-stop strategy at Monza, Red Bull staggered the stints of their two cars to maximise their chances at a track which did not play to their strengths.
Sebastian Vettel was the first of the one-stopping drivers to make his pit stop, on lap 18. This was two laps earlier than anyone did last year.
This gave him the advantage of the ‘undercut’ and allowed him to get ahead of Valtteri Bottas (albeit temporarily) and Jenson Button.
Team mate Daniel Ricciardo, however, had made a poor start and had to rely on the opposite strategy. “It’s one of the longest runs up to turn one here from the start line and it’s not a place where you want to have a bad one,” he said, “but I dropped the clutch and didn’t get the traction.”
Red Bull left Ricciardo out until lap 26, by which time almost all the other cars had pitted. He took full advantage of his fresher tyres, passing Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen.
Ricciardo picked off one more car before the chequered flag fell – and significantly, it was his team mate’s. Team principal Christian Horner reckoned the pass was “inevitable” given how their tyres performed during the final stint.
“We picked two different strategies,” he explained, “an aggressive one with Sebastian to undercut the McLaren, which worked and gave him track position but unfortunately made his tyres marginal at the end of the race.”
“With Daniel we took the opposite approach as he was running in clear air. We ran him long in the first stint with a shorter second stint and then his passing moves to come back through the field were truly impressive and obviously with Sebastian struggling with tyre degradation due to the length of the stint, it became inevitable that the two were going to swap positions.”
Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Medium (25) | Hard (28) | ||
| Nico Rosberg | Medium (24) | Hard (29) | ||
| Felipe Massa | Medium (23) | Hard (30) | ||
| Valtteri Bottas | Medium (24) | Hard (29) | ||
| Daniel Ricciardo | Medium (26) | Hard (27) | ||
| Sebastian Vettel | Medium (18) | Hard (35) | ||
| Sergio Perez | Medium (19) | Hard (34) | ||
| Jenson Button | Medium (22) | Hard (31) | ||
| Kimi Raikkonen | Medium (20) | Hard (33) | ||
| Kevin Magnussen | Medium (21) | Hard (32) | ||
| Daniil Kvyat | Hard (30) | Medium (23) | ||
| Nico Hulkenberg | Hard (19) | Medium (34) | ||
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Medium (24) | Hard (29) | ||
| Pastor Maldonado | Medium (21) | Hard (31) | ||
| Adrian Sutil | Hard (24) | Medium (28) | ||
| Romain Grosjean | Hard (20) | Medium (32) | ||
| Kamui Kobayashi | Medium (22) | Hard (30) | ||
| Jules Bianchi | Medium (27) | Hard (25) | ||
| Marcus Ericsson | Hard (30) | Medium (21) | ||
| Esteban Gutierrez | Hard (9) | Medium (27) | Medium (13) | Medium (2) |
| Fernando Alonso | Medium (21) | Hard (7) | ||
| Max Chilton | Medium (5) |
Italian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 24.214 | 21 | |
| 2 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 24.223 | 0.009 | 21 |
| 3 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 24.323 | 0.109 | 23 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 24.388 | 0.174 | 26 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.453 | 0.239 | 25 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 24.547 | 0.333 | 20 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 24.583 | 0.369 | 24 |
| 8 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 24.651 | 0.437 | 30 |
| 9 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 24.669 | 0.455 | 22 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 24.913 | 0.699 | 21 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 24.938 | 0.724 | 19 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 24.991 | 0.777 | 24 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 25.046 | 0.832 | 24 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 25.098 | 0.884 | 20 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 25.176 | 0.962 | 18 |
| 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 25.277 | 1.063 | 22 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 25.547 | 1.333 | 19 |
| 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 25.693 | 1.479 | 36 |
| 19 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 26.376 | 2.162 | 9 |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 26.641 | 2.427 | 27 |
| 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 26.849 | 2.635 | 49 |
| 22 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 26.864 | 2.650 | 24 |
| 23 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 28.685 | 4.471 | 30 |
2014 Italian Grand Prix
- Hamilton voted Driver of the Weekend for third time
- Monza keeps up F1’s run of satisfying races
- 2014 Italian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- 2014 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Alex makes perfect prediction to claim top prize
Image © Red Bull/Getty
Michael C
7th September 2014, 19:27
*sigh* there’s always one… Gutierrez..
greg-c (@greg-c)
8th September 2014, 12:32
The new crash king ?
BlueChris (@bluechris)
7th September 2014, 19:42
To me vettel even if i never liked him he could had give the place to riccy simple because i suppose that scenario was discussed in RB before the race and riccy is far above vettel in points with any bad luck to Mercedes to be helpful, a scenario we all saw in last races giving to riccy the thought of wc.
Sven (@crammond)
7th September 2014, 19:50
Vettel´s early stop made the others react, which in turn reulted in all of them struggling with deg at the end. That made passing easier for Ricciardo, as it´s much harder to overtake when everyone is driving tyres with roughly the same age. So maybe, if Red-Bull had them both stop at e.g. lap 23 and 24, and thus not lured in the rest of the midfield early, it might have been Vet P6 behind a McL and Ric somewhere around P9/P10 where he was before the pit-stops. I think it´s the split which gave them the team-result.
Yoshisune (@yobo01)
7th September 2014, 20:49
That’s true. I think that Red Bull today wasn’t very fast, Mclaren had more or less the same pace (Vettel wasn’t able to build a gap to Magnussen in his second stint) and both Vettel and Ricciardo didn’t qualify very well. All things considered, P5 and P6 is an amazing result for them. It’s just frustrating that once again Vettel struggled because of the strategy.
Jason (@jason12)
7th September 2014, 20:26
The cat is definitely out of the bag!
aka_robyn
7th September 2014, 23:35
To which cat are you referring? Please enlighten us!
aka_robyn
7th September 2014, 23:36
That was supposed to be a reply to @jason12.
greg-c (@greg-c)
8th September 2014, 12:37
Why was the cat in the bag To start with ?
Ricardo Ferreira (@yes-master)
7th September 2014, 21:00
RBR was very unccompetitve all the weekend, so the only thing that crosses my mind is that RBR decided (Vettel included) to make a better strategy for Ric, as he is in 3rd place overal. OFc, that’s not a good thing to live with for Vettel (as he was easily overtaked by Ric), but that was the best decision for the team in the end of the day.
Mr win or lose
8th September 2014, 10:08
I don’t think Ricciardo’s strategy was really better. The “optimal” timing for a pitstop was probably in-between Vettel’s and Ricciardo’s pitstop. Red Bull pitted Vettel early to overtake Magnussen, so he had a clear road after the pitstops (although he wasn’t really faster than Magnussen). Ricciardo was well behind and he was just waiting for the cars in front to battle, so he could catch up and overtake them and that worked out very well. So the Red Bull strategy was very efficient for both cars.
Paul
8th September 2014, 16:01
It was a good strategy for the team, but disappointing for the race. Vet did his job well, he held up much of the field so that Ricciardo could come at them all with fresher rubber
JOhn
7th September 2014, 21:19
it’s not the first time Vettel receives wrong strategy this year and it won’t be the last. There is no lack on this. They simply push Riciardo. He has been betten for another weekend
Michael Brown (@)
7th September 2014, 23:11
It looked like he would have lost out anyway; if he pitted layer he would have been stuck in traffic.
Still, I’m disappointed that Vettel always gets bad strategy calls this year.
Paul
8th September 2014, 16:03
Well, Vettel is behind so the focus is on Ricciardo. Hence the strategy in Italy. We must also remember the boos Vettel received last year. Not good for the brand….
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
8th September 2014, 17:41
It’s not a wrong strategy, just one worse than what RIC got, down more to luck than anything else.
Mark (@marlarkey)
8th September 2014, 20:59
its not so much that he “received the wrong strategy” as he is just not as good as RIC. It really does make one wonder whether the RBR car was SO much ahead of the others that it flattered VET.
George (@george)
8th September 2014, 22:40
Vettel didn’t have the wrong strategy, it got him ahead of the cars he was racing with (McLarens + Perez). For all we know Ricciardo could have just have had more race pace than Vettel, it wouldn’t be the first time this season.
Oletros (@oletros)
8th September 2014, 23:19
Yap, Webber was really ahead any other driver apart of Vettel
Oletros (@oletros)
8th September 2014, 23:20
Obviously, it was a reply to @marlarkey
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
7th September 2014, 22:01
Any idea why FI pitted Hulkenberg so early?
Having to do 34 laps on the medium tyres probably didn’t help his race at all.
@HoHum (@hohum)
7th September 2014, 23:50
Dear oh dear, I was expecting comments marvelling at RICs racing nouse and overtaking skill in salvaging a great result after being buried at the start, instead we seem to have bought out all the Vettel apologists. I am warming to VET this year, he is showing great character and restraint in a year where it is not going his way, watching his recent qualifying and race performances it is clear that he is trying very hard in a car that does not entirely suit him, to be faster than RIC he uses all the track and more driving right on the edge of control and sliding the car dramatically, this effort is hard on both driver and tyres, I think Vettel stopped early because it was the best strategy available to him as his tyres began to give up.
George (@george)
8th September 2014, 22:44
Yeah he seems to be struggling similar to Raikkonen and Hulkenberg, doesn’t have great pace and can’t make the tyres last compared to his team mate.
Toxic (@)
8th September 2014, 0:18
Strategy or not it was another great showing from Dan. It’s pure pleasure watching him race with such accurate overtaking moves. Brilliant drive!
Alexis Ryan (@wench)
8th September 2014, 0:38
It’s not really surprising that Ric managed to do a longer first stint. He just seems to know exactly how to handle the RB10 to stay quick and have very tire wear.
Geoffo
8th September 2014, 4:24
C. Horner explained the situation well. He said SV used to drive like a ballerina, on and off the brakes and throttle continuously – call it aggressive. DR’s style , according to Horner is almost old fashioned , very smooth, just lets the car flow through the corners but he is super fast and precise when doing it.
Nobody denies AV is fast but look at Silverstone, Spa and Monza, he is often off the track. darting here and there. DR passes, according to many experts like Andretti are pure class, precise and decisive.
It is what it is.
rob
9th September 2014, 17:22
I think Red Bull needs to get Danny practising his starts ! This is a problem that Webber had consistently in F1.