Max Verstappen said Ferrari’s pole position for the Italian Grand Prix came as no surprise to him given the differences between their cars.
Carlos Sainz Jnr beat the championship leader to pole by just 13 thousandths of a second in a tight qualifying session. Charles Leclerc, who will start third in the other Ferrari, was only five hundredths of a second off the Red Bull.Verstappen said he was “not really surprised” to narrowly miss out on pole to Ferrari. “They were quick also last year,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.
Ferrari’s low drag rear wing was always going to make them difficult to beat over a single lap around Monza, Verstappen believes.
“When you look at their rear wing, it seems like it’s quite well-optimised for Monza, where I think our wing, especially for one lap, is maybe not the best optimisation but for the race normally it should be better. So nothing shocking to be honest.”
Verstappen was quickest in Q1 and Q2 but the margins were always very narrow. “It was just very tight,” he said. “You could see Q1, Q2, Q3 every run you could see that we were very closely matched.”
He said it hadn’t been as easy to get the set up right on his RB19 as it had in recent races. “This weekend for us, especially from my side, I think Friday was a little bit more tricky. But I think we can’t really complain, I’ve had so many weekends in a row where we put the car on the track and it has been like easy going, it has been really well set-up.
“It seemed like here it was just a little bit more difficult to find the right trade-off for downforce for us. But I was very happy this morning, I thought the car was working well on one lap and on the long run as well.
“So I’m happy with second, to be honest. Here in Monza it’s always very tight. Sometimes you might jump ahead, sometimes you’re just behind. But I’m confident for tomorrow.”
Bringing the F1 news from the source
RaceFans strives to bring its readers news directly from the key players in Formula 1. We are able to do this thanks in part to the generous backing of our RaceFans Supporters.
By contributing 1 per month or 12 per year (or the equivalent in other currencies) you can help cover the costs involved in producing original journalism: Travelling, writing, creating, hosting, contacting and developing.
We have been proudly supported by our readers for over 10 years. If you enjoy our independent coverage, please consider becoming a RaceFans Supporter today. As a bonus, all our Supporters can also browse the site ad-free. Sign up or find out more via the links below:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2023 Italian Grand Prix
- Despite close battles at Monza, F1 drivers want more powerful DRS
- Monza “frustrating” for Alonso but Aston Martin expect better form in coming races
- F1 changed rules to stop Mercedes in 2021 but we won’t ‘cry foul’ now – Wolff
- McLaren will bring ‘follow-up to Austria upgrade’ before focusing on 2024 car
- Magnussen explains why his driving style rarely works with the Haas VF-23
SteveP
2nd September 2023, 18:58
Because tomorrow we throw out the sandbags and show some of our real speed
Kata
3rd September 2023, 0:15
Sandbags? :-)
Tomorrow we will know why the Ferrari’s had a very good quali result. And that’s because of the focus on the pole, not the podium.
BamBoomBots
2nd September 2023, 19:21
The talk of someone who knows that in 10 laps or so he will have much better straight-line speed due to better tyre life, which results in improved traction in the acceleration zones. Red Bull did it last year and I have no reason to suspect it will not work this year.
Tomorrow will be interesting nonetheless. Perhaps Ferrari have found something. Like a good strategy call token they could use once.
AlexS
2nd September 2023, 20:45
Haha
notagrumpyfan
2nd September 2023, 21:10
They certainly saved up their tokens over the past races (even seasons) ;)
Coventry Climax
3rd September 2023, 1:46
Verstappen managing to get a clean first corner and lap, that’s the first and main issue.
Unless they’ve solved it, and I may have missed that but I’ve not heard of any upgrades in that direction, Ferrari will eat their tyres too rapidly again. And then there’s a decent chance they mess up their strategies and/or pitstops again, as their record there isn’t exactly flawless this year.
So despite their positions on the grid, I’m not inclined to put money on Ferrari.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd September 2023, 3:38
Also verstappen gained over 1 tenth on the last sector, it’s how he managed to jump leclerc and he was over 1 tenth behind sainz after 2nd sector, so they have a significant advantage there.
some racing fan
3rd September 2023, 6:24
Why is it Ferrari always seem to do better at Monza than they do at other circuits? Strange…