A week has passed since Charles Leclerc took a brilliant victory for Scuderia Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix, his second win of the 2024 campaign. It’s also his second victory at Monza.
Pit Debrief takes a look at the job done by the driver of car number 16, his race engineer Bryan Bozzi, and the strategy team that helped the Scuderia claim a famous win on home soil.
Taking advantage of the squabbling McLarens
At the start, George Russell had to take to the run-off at the first chicane and that gifted Leclerc P3.
With Oscar Piastri making a bold and brilliant move at the second chicane on Lando Norris, the Brit had a terrible exit and Leclerc forced his way through into Lesmo 1.
Pushing Piastri in the first stint
In the early laps, Leclerc was consistently within the DRS of the Australian driver, although that led to plenty of dirty air. The gap was up to 4s by the time he pitted as degradation kicked in for the Ferrari driver.
Before boxing at the end of lap 15 to try and cover Norris, Plan B (one-stop) was mentioned for the first time.
Lap 11
Bozzi: And we are thinking Plan B. Plan B.
Leclerc: I agree.
Lap 13
BB: And switch position A. Graining picking up for most people now.
Lap 15
BB: And box Charles, box.
Leclerc drops behind both McLarens
McLaren executed the undercut on Ferrari as Norris had a strong out lap on his fresh hards to take P2.
At the time, the Monegasque driver was far from happy at the decision to try and cover Norris when the undercut seemed inevitable as the Brit was within 0.8s before boxing.
Lap 16
BB: And Norris ahead, Ocon behind.
CL: What was that? Why do we pit if we are undercut?
Speaking after the race, Fred Vasseur explained that they wanted to match McLarens strategy even though they lost position, feeling they had better tyre life.
By lap 26, they knew a one-stop was on.
“We wanted to cover him and to stay in the same race as them because we had the feeling at this stage that we had an advantage on the tyres. But the advantage was so good that after ten laps with the hards it was clear for us that we could go on to the end.”
Duping McLaren over the radio
When you factor in Vasseur’s post-race comments, the key for Bryan Bozzi was to trick McLaren into thinking Ferrari would two-stop as well. Plan C [two-stop] was mentioned for the first time on lap 17, and again on lap 24, although it was from a definitive decision, for obvious reasons.
Piastri and Norris were pushing hard as they vied to win the race and be the lead McLaren on track, and it was hurting their left front tyre in the process.
A key moment came on lap 31. Norris made an error at the second chicane as he took to the run-off, losing almost 2s in the process to his teammate.
Leclerc, who was within 1.7s of him before the error, suddenly found himself in DRS range. They forced McLaren to pit at the end of the next lap as Ferrari played the box, opposite Norris card.
Here’s how it played out over the radio from laps 17 to 32 with Bozzi and Leclerc.
Lap 17
BB: So we’re seeing graining on the hard as well on the Red Bulls, so it might be a Plan C at the end. Keep it up.
CL: Well this I need to know [make a decision now]. It’s very different for my tyre management.
Lap 20/21
BB: Degradation on hard higher than expected. Both Red Bulls with front left graining. Still out, lapping in 25:6.
Lap 23
BB: And Verstappen now [in] box for another hard. He’s on a two-stop.
Lap 24
CL: B or C?
BB: Probably more towards Plan C.
Lap 30
BB: Norris starting to struggle. This is when Red Bull started to have graining, Lap 15 in the stint.
Lap 32
BB: And box opposite McLaren. Box opposite McLaren.
For the next 5 laps, there was discussion about building a tyre delta on Norris to coax Piastri into pitting as McLaren expected Ferrari to two-stop as well, lap times, avoiding micro locking into turn 4, and a tyre phase question from Bozzi.
Piastri was struggling with his left front as the 23-year-old pushed extremely hard throughout the stint, and he had to bail at the end of lap 38 when leading by 5.5s at the time. The lap times between himself and Leclerc were very even in the four or five fours before he boxed.
The strongest hint they were one-stopping in this period was when Leclerc’s race engineer talked about avoiding micro locks into the second chicane.
Lap 33
BB [after Norris pits]: Stay out. Stay out. Stay out. Now it’s time to do some good laps. We’re going to build the tyre delta.
Lap 34
BB: And careful with micro locks into turn 4. You’re driving really well. Come on.
Lap 35
BB: And tyre phase update.
CL: Pace, I know it’s not ideal for you but that’s about it.
Lap 36/37
CL: Is Norris coming back?
BB: Norris is doing 23.2s and is in traffic with Verstappen for now. And let’s get back into the rhythm with a bit of free air [he had lapped Gasly].
Lap 38
CL: If you can update me on the guys we are fighting, the McLarens, Carlos, everybody around please.
BB: Piastri 23:7; Sainz 23:3 previous lap with four lap younger tyres than you.
Straight back to Plan B and going to the end
On the start-finish straight as Piastri came in, Bozzi immediately mentions they are thinking about Plan B again. Leclerc agrees with the decision.
Lap 39
BB: So Charles. Sainz thinking plan B and we are considering it. Plan B. What do you think? Piastri’s in.
CL: Yeah, copy that.
BB: So it’s all about tyre management now.
While Sainz did mention Plan B to his engineer Riccardo Adami, the Ferrari plan was clearly a one-stop from far out as the strategy team called it perfectly. It was a massive team effort.
In fact the Spaniard took no credit for what happened with Leclerc in his post-race written media interview, praising the team and Leclerc for what they did, despite former Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin strategiest Bernie Collins suggesting he was the key on the strategy side by extending his opening stint on the mediums.
Sainz’s lap times were getting slower and slower, and he lost valuable time to the top 3 because of it.
“At the same time I feel like today was a bit of a coin toss, whether to stay out or not, get it right, Charles has nailed it together with the team,” the 30-year-old said.
Leclerc’s brilliance behind the wheel and magnificent tyre management seals victory
With Norris and Piastri on the rampage on much fresher tyres, the 26-year-old had to be perfect over the final 15 laps. He was.
Bozzi would go on to mention looking after the tyres at Parabolica a couple of times, and it’s something Leclerc pulled off perfectly.
Sainz played a small part here as well, holding off Piastri for a lap and costing him around a second.
0.599s covered the Monegasque’s lap times from laps 39 to 53 as he avoided graining the left front with very smooth and precise driving, and he managed his other three tyres perfectly as well. His final lap of the race was the third quickest of that stint on that hard tyre.
Leclerc is very much in the elite bracket along with the current World Champions on the grid when it comes to race pace and tyre management, a serious skill of his that is often overlooked.
Such is his advantage over Sainz in tyre management, the 7-time race winner pulled away in the closing laps despite having 4-lap older tyres in the second stint. The gap went out from 10.615s on lap 43 to 15.621s when the chequered flag appeared.
A superb team effort
Between Ferrari’s strategy, Bozzi’s excellent communication on the radio, and Leclerc’s tyre whispering, it was an outstanding show of team work last Sunday as they came together to stun McLaren and nab the victory from under their noses.
Everything has to be perfect when things are so close in a Grand Prix like the one in Monza, and Ferrari did a fantastic job as Leclerc ultimately prevailed by 2.6s.
The Italian giants have made serious steps forward operationally under the leadership of Fred Vasseur compared to the absolute mess that went on in 2022 when Mattia Binotto was team principal.
The main goal now is improving the car for 2025 to give Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton an opportunity to go for the championship in the last year of the current regulations.
