In the round-up: Italian Grand Prix pole-winner Carlos Sainz Jnr says he felt he had a chance to win the race before losing his grip on the lead.
In brief
Sainz “used tyres too much” in defence against Verstappen
Ferrari driver Sainz came under sustained pressure from Max Verstappen early in the Italian Grand Prix. Sainz kept his rival at bay for over a quarter of the race before the Red Bull driver eventually found a way past.
Before that, Sainz admitted, he was starting to think he could win. “I felt like I had it fairly under control but then I think around lap 10 to 12, I started feeling the rear-left tyre giving up a lot, a lot earlier than I would have expected,” he said.
“At that point, I realised I had used my tyres too much and probably to keep Max behind, I had worn that rear-left tyre too much and that I was going to suffer a lot for the rest of the race because it was going to probably make me box early onto a hard tyre. And then the second stint was going to be very long.
“It’s exactly what happened and my feeling was correct. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to degrade so much but it was clear that I was pushing very, very hard to keep them behind. Probably harder than what I should have done.”
Pirelli start F1 test at two Italian tracks

Sergio Perez was fastest in his Red Bull at Monza with a 1’23.585, with Esteban Ocon lapping 1.923 seconds slower in his Alpine. The pair completed 119 and 118 laps respectively. Pierre Gasly will run in Alpine’s car on Wednesday.
Sainz did 153 laps around the short Fiorano track, and will be replaced by team mate Charles Leclerc for the test’s second day. A photograph taken by a spectator (below) indicated Sainz spun off at one stage.
Andretti Autosport rebrands to Andretti Global
Euroformula reverses ‘Noda rule’
The Formula 3-level Euroformula series has reversed a rule which allowed female racers to run at a lower minimum combined weight for driver and car.
As the series has struggled to attract entries only one driver – Juju Noda – benefited from the rule. Her victory at Paul Ricard in July attracted attention to the series and criticism over the rule.
Starting from this weekend’s round at the Red Bull Ring all drivers will be required to run at the same minimum weight. The exact weight advantage previously conferred varied but was as much as 26 kilograms at one start.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Spannender Hamilton-Verdacht von F1-Legende (Bild - German)
'Rosberg was hungry and had the absolute will to become world champion. Lewis no longer has that hunger. Because of that – and because the car is no longer quite as powerful – he has serious problems.'
Palou: 'Rompí con McLaren porque no había una oportunidad real en F1' (Marca - Spanish)
"More than that it is because there was no real opportunity in F1. That explains everything. But of course it also helps to have the best car in IndyCar."
Monza at its manic best: F2 Weekend Wrap-Up (Formula 2)
'The feature race was more like a horror movie playing out for the team. Kush Maini was an effective third after making his mandatory stop under the second Safety Car. His battle with Jak Crawford was hard but fair right up until lap 23 when the pair made contact. His reaction told the story as Campos Racing looked well placed to take their first podium since the Melbourne sprint race.'
Monolite to field Hadrien David at Spielberg (FREC)
'Monolite Racing will line up for the seventh Formula Regional European Championship round at the Red Bull Ring with a new addition. The Italian squad will field experienced Frenchman Hadrien David, who will replace Kirill Smal. After finishing second in FREC in 2021 and fourth last year, David is the driver with the most podiums, 16, of which five are wins.'
Charlie Wurz and Josh Dufek join Euroformula with CryptoTower (Euroformula)
'CryptoTower Racing Team today announced two great additions to the Euroformula grid as from the next round onwards: Charlie Wurz and Joshua Dufek. Both graduate from FREC and are confirmed for the remainder of the season. Wurz is the reigning FRegional Oceania champion and son of former F1 star and double Le Mans winner Alex Wurz.'
How is van Gisbergen flattening the NASCAR learning curve? (Racer)
''It was honestly a lot of fun, just the way he was prepared,' Grubb says of the van Gisbergen experience. 'We were only physically together for roughly a week before we were able to go out there to Chicago and pull off the miraculous story there. So we learned each other a lot using WhatsApp for a couple of weeks beforehand, figuring out what he needed.'
Could Iwasa or Pourchaire have ended their F2 victory wait at Monza? (Formula Scout)
'Pourchaire 'tried everything' but lost out to what he called 'a great move'. He was protecting a points lead as well as second place, but 'was racing like normal'. 'I was thinking about (my points lead) a bit, but still pushing a lot. You could see it on Ayumu going into turn one, it was close, but still fair, clean.''
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Box box box. That’s @OconEsteban’s day all done and dusted ✅
Countless laps around the legendary Monza circuit 🇮🇹 #Alpine pic.twitter.com/RCV0twNGJk
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) September 5, 2023
A weekend well spent. 🙌
We loved having #SauberAcademy driver Léna Bühler join us in the garage over the weekend – getting to see all the action up close!#ItalianGP #F1Academy pic.twitter.com/I9UZLfQfLS
— Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber (@stakef1team_ks) September 5, 2023
The setup 👉 the shot 📸 #ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/mD1rQvJxoE
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) September 5, 2023
Carlos è andato fuori pista ai test😭 pic.twitter.com/WlYu1YAHOE
— Ana🇷🇸|🆑☀️|🏁🏎️ | Next race🇨🇦🍁 (@AnaFerrariHeart) September 5, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
PeterG is concerned about what Codemaster’s acquisition of the World Rally Championship game licence in addition to Formula 1 means for its other racing titles.
Pretty sure it’s been said previously that the both Rally and the mainline Dirt series are finished with Codemasters now only focusing on the F1 and WRC games.
Slightly Mad studio who created the Project Cars series as well as Codemasters Evo who developed Dirt 5 and OnRush (And worked for Sony as Evolution studio to make Driveclub, Motorstorm and the excellent PS2 WRC games) have been put onto the teams working on Need for speed titles.
Project Cars has been cancelled by EA and Grid may be finished as well.
Basically with EA’s purchase we have lost the Codemasters that were rotating a few different franchises and styles of game that featured something for everyone.
Now if you don’t like the F1 games or want a Rally game that’s more than just a WRC-licenced title there’s little point getting that excited about anything Codemasters are doing.
PeterG
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Baldry 888 and Charlie!
Jere (@jerejj)
6th September 2023, 6:05
I never really had that hope. I always thought he’d eventually lose the lead anyway.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th September 2023, 10:11
Yeah, i was pleasantly surprised at how well he actually did to keep Verstappen behind for so long.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
6th September 2023, 8:40
That’s the power of Verstappen and Red Bull in 2023. They set up the car to be good on tires, sacrificing their qualifying pace in the process, and discussed before hand they just stay behind the Ferrari until their tires were gone and then pounce. I think it was in one of the first five laps when Max was already reporting back that Sainz was starting to slide out of the corners. Then when it was time, Max did a bit of a feint to the inside as if he was going to make a lunge into turn 1 and immediately Sainz reacted by braking too late and locking up and the move was done. Excellent work by Max and Red Bull.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
6th September 2023, 9:15
@sjaakfoo
I get your point about the tyres but the RB19 is still the fastest overall car by quite a margin. RBR still technically got 11 pole positions (10 poles due to Verstappen’s penalty in Spa) and even when they were defeated in qualy, the gap was still less than a tenth !
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
6th September 2023, 10:37
And yet the Ferrari’s top speed was 352kph compared to Red Bull’s 346kph. Because they sacrificed their top speed to improve their tire wear.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th September 2023, 10:16
As @tifoso1989 highlights, the RB19 has not been focussed at qualifying pace that much, rather from the start of the season we’ve seen it’s has a huge advantage in the longer runs of the races is where it stretches its legs.
Sure, it IS the fastest car more often than not, especially in the early season. But with the field this close – less than a tenth between the first three cars, it is not a given that the car is fastest, I just don’t think they “gave up” anything in qualifying to benefit them for the race there. If so, they would have gone for more straight line speed, like Ferrari did actually.
But it was clear that the Red Bull had the better tyre life and Max could use that to really ramp up the pressure on Sainz, knowing that if he wouldn’t be passing on track, he would most likely take him in the pitstop. Or just come back later at him on fresher tyres and do the job.
MichaelN
6th September 2023, 21:00
This is exactly why all the talk of aerodynamics is overblown. The Red Bull car, while fast, is not that much quicker in qualifying. It’s still the best car as @tifoso1989 notes, but it’s not like Pérez is filling out the front rows in it – which he is often doing in the races. But it’s just so ridiculously kind on the tyres that it’s almost incomprehensible no other team can even come close to replicating that.
RBA
6th September 2023, 11:06
I saw parallels to Canada 2022 where Sainz was chasing Verstappen in a quicker Ferrari while Verstappen was chasing Sainz in a quicker Red Bull.
In both cases it was Sainz that locked up.
At Monza he would have probably lost track position in the pitstops anyways but I felt that he made it a bit easy for his rival.
melanos
6th September 2023, 22:01
You did great Carlos but rationally you should probably have left Max go by and concentrate in defending from Checo. Your tyres would have been in much better shape and maybe you could have defended successfully from Checo and make second. What irks me is that Charles never tried the slightest attempt on Max or Checo when he was right behind, instead he waited until they were gone and your tyres were ruined to go full tilt on you. I was extremely pleased that you managed to keep him behind in spite of DRS and the state of your rubber.