Charles Leclerc grabbed his second win of the 2024 F1 season and his second at Monza with victory at the Italian GP, as a bold strategy choice of pitting just a single time paid off handsomely for the team, that converted a fourth place grid slot into an unlikely race win – and revealed that was the team’s plan for the strategy all along.
After a great start which got him past Lando Norris and a strong first stint, Leclerc closely challenged Oscar Piastri for the race lead as the race developed.
The Monegasque driver stopped for a new set of hard tyres on lap 15, and was initially frustrated by Ferrari’s latency in making a pit stop as they lost out on track position to Norris, who had pitted off his medium tyres a lap earlier. He went as far as questioning the need for a stop at that time given the track position had already been lost.
He would then follow Norris for the rest of the stint, and as the McLaren driver started to struggle on his tyres and pitted for a second time, Leclerc found his rhythm again with the tyres and started to consider the one-stop strategy as a serious option – despite earlier concerns of the fragility of the hard tyres on the struggling Red Bulls:
“[There were] lots of emotions [during the race],” he said. “We stopped quite early but still [relatively] too late because Lando [Norris] undercut us, and I was [thinking] ‘okay, maybe the race is going away from us’, and Oscar [Piastri] also had good pace.
“But I didn’t demotivate myself, I kept pushing and trying to keep those tyres just to have the most freedom on the [decision] of one or two stops.
“We wanted to make the one-stop work at the beginning, then we saw Red Bull struggling with the hard [tyres] and we were like ‘maybe the two-stop is better.’
“So that’s why we stopped early, and there was a long way to go. But then when the two McLarens stopped, I found a lot more grip [by] not having the dirty air from Oscar in front, and the pace came back to us.
“So from that moment onwards I was like ‘why not try it?’, and the team said it as well, so we were both aligned.
“And it’s great, today the team has done an exceptional job.”
And despite the circumstances proving favourable at that point to make the single stop a serious consideration, Leclerc revealed it was his and Ferrari’s intention all along to run the conventional strategy despite concerns of graining and excessive degradation from other teams going into Sunday:
“Before the race, if you would have asked me, the one stop was definitely the thing I wanted to do,” he explained. “After 10 laps, I think we saw that Red Bull started to struggle with the front left on the hard [tyres], and there we started to doubt the one stop.
“We thought that it would be a lot more difficult because we thought that the hard would be a more difficult tyre to bring to the end.
“However, as soon as I put it, I still thought that this was a possibility. And especially, I think, when Oscar pitted, two or three laps after that, I felt like I had more grip not having a car in front, especially on the front tyres, and that’s where I really thought that the one stop, we could make it work.”
After scoring a very special win on his debut season for Ferrari in Monza back in 2019, the Monegasque emphasized how the second time feels just as special and momentous as the first – and revealed he was getting a bit emotional in the last few laps, just like in his now famous home win in Monte Carlo earlier this season:
“Just like in 2019, the last 3, 4, 5 laps, it was quite difficult to keep the eyes on the track. And I was obviously looking a little bit in the grass and I could see everybody was standing up.
“And that was really nice to see. In 2019, I remember there was my mum also in the grandstand because I didn’t manage a paddock pass for her. This year, she actually had a paddock pass, so it’s good.
“She could watch and experience both things, once in the grandstand and once in the paddock. But yeah, it’s a very special feeling. I could also see some red smoke at one point.
“So I knew everybody was super excited, but I also knew that I had to finish the job and that I had to stay on it because Oscar had a really good pace. But yeah, in the last 5, 6 laps, I felt like we had it. The tyres felt good and I could see that Oscar was not that fast to catch me before the end of the race if I was not doing any mistakes.”
Despite the emotional win, the now seven-time grand prix winner is keeping his feet on the ground regarding the next few races, acknowledging that whilst Ferrari did a “step forward” with its upgrade package that debuted this weekend, expectations need to be kept realistic – and most importantly, avoid a slump of “three or four races” like it had after the Monaco GP:
“Yeah, dreams do repeat themselves,” said Leclerc. “It was a dream in 2019 and it was a dream in 2024, and it’s been, again, a very special moment.
“It’s a very special week, a very tiring week – in every good way possible, but a tiring one – lots of attention and lots of things to do.
“But to finish it like this with a win is just incredibly special and I’m so incredibly happy today.
“It’s great, [but] it’s a long season still and it doesn’t end here. We’ve got to bounce back, just like we did now, in Baku, and we’ve also got to enjoy the moment [because] it’s a very special one.
“From Monaco to Montreal, it was a really big change from one weekend to another.
“And then we went through three or four of the worst races of the season, just because we were trying to understand what was going on in our car. So hopefully we don’t go through three or four very difficult races from now on, and I don’t think it will be the case.
“But again, it’s very important that not only the team, but I think also the expectations from outside don’t become crazy high from one race to another, because this is not realistic.
“Have we done a step forward? Yes. Is it enough to go and win races until the end of the season? I don’t think so yet, but we did a good step in the right direction.”
