2014 Italian GP - Monza, September 5-7

[SectorOne]

Monza will show if Renault has caught up with Mercedes.
I personally don´t think Red Bull will be even remotely close when it´s a "fair fight" in the sense that now both will run a low DF package.

[djos]

Monza will show if Renault has caught up with Mercedes.
I personally don´t think Red Bull will be even remotely close when it´s a "fair fight" in the sense that now both will run a low DF package.

It sure will be interesting, even Williams' rear wing looked like a barn door compared the Redbull's at Spa! Just goes to show how much DF RBR make with the car body.

[Mattyw]

Monza will show if Renault has caught up with Mercedes.
I personally don´t think Red Bull will be even remotely close when it´s a "fair fight" in the sense that now both will run a low DF package.

It sure will be interesting, even Williams' rear wing looked like a barn door compared the Redbull's at Spa! Just goes to show how much DF RBR make with the car body.

Clearly not much when they were 1.5 secs down in the dry vs the mercs in the dry in sector 2 (aero)!

[PlatinumZealot]

Williams were supposed to make a come back in Spa but it never really materialized. What we saw was a sippery RedBull putting the fight to Mercedes instead. I am half expecting the RedBull to be the second fastest again in Monza.

[SiLo]

Pretty sure Red Bull would have nothing on merc if they hadn't have been crashing into each other.

[Jonnycraig]

Monza will show if Renault has caught up with Mercedes.
I personally don´t think Red Bull will be even remotely close when it´s a "fair fight" in the sense that now both will run a low DF package.

Of course RB haven't. Mercedes' error was the same error RB made in years gone by, an unnecessary amount of DF bolted on leaving them unable to pass on the straights. Merc would still have qualified 1-2 with less DF on and Rosberg may well have been able to overtake the trimmed out Vettel. In clear air, the Merc was still comfortably the fastest car at Spa.

[SilverArrow10]

I think in Spa if it had not been a wet qualy Williams would have been right at the sharp end and could have potentially won the race themselves. So they would be the ones to pick up the pieces if Mercedes screw up again at Monza, rather than Redbull.

[Töm87]

Oh no, five pages of tarmac run offs discussion . If Senna died at Parabolica we would have had tarmac there for twenty years and no one would even blink against it. General correlation and physics is not enough, only big name and death would be sufficient.

I think Mercedes is winning this one, Spa gave a quick answer to wishful thinking question if Williams can challenge them and proved opposite predictions right. No collisions this time, another "change of policy" at Merc proving they have no policies at all. I would suggest anyone not to get close to Alonso if he wants to overtake, I'm sure this another twist in "we're not giving penalties for nothing" or rather "yes we do depending on a driver" policy will turn boring season into even more boring and force drivers to take no risks at all.

There was tarmac/concret at Tambrello not gravel.

[iotar__]

There was tarmac/concret at Tambrello not gravel.

..and these are different corners and tracks too plus they don't even race there anymore. Mentality was the point = guess that no one would complain about safety modifications after event like that. I'm a hypocrite BTW, I would be for leaving Monza intact, there's enough run-offs everywhere so one corner might remain the same logic, but I know real life can't work like that.

From memory Monza is rarely a direct copy of Spa, Ferrari and McLaren in recent years were good examples. Balance behind Merc might be different, for RB it helps that they can afford unlike Williams big special Spa package, more downforce and maybe softer tyres(?) played the part. I'm betting on Williams close to RB and for Massa plastic bag out of the nowhere covering his helmet on the first lap.

[RicerDude]

Williams will hopefully run a low downforce package so they should be monstrous down the straights but with barely enough downforce to get them through the corners.

[gray41]

Im interested to see how Williams go, didn't appear to have a low DF package at Spa.

[MrBigglesworth]

It's definitely going to be interesting in the run in - Hamilton is going need P1 finishes pretty much all the way or some bad reliability from Rosberg, who's car is looking a bit more robust.

Hamilton was saying something about having used one more engine than Rosberg - but I thought that they had used the same number coming into the race.

Red Bull and Williams narrowing the gap to Merc, but there's still quite a gulf, but I'm not sure what is going on with Ferrari. Can Raikonnen repeat his performance from Spa??

[majki2111]

I just want to mention that Mercedes never really used 8th gear this season, not even in Spa... Monza maybe? Has someone else noticed that?

[FW17]

Cant believe a year has gone by, still remember we talking about this wing last year; 7 element cascade

[Juzh]

I just want to mention that Mercedes never really used 8th gear this season, not even in Spa... Monza maybe? Has someone else noticed that?

They use it after 330, which was quite often in germany and spa.