Author Archives: PressBox

Charles Leclerc crashed on lap 2 of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after losing control at Parabolica and hitting the barriers. The race was briefly suspended, and the Ferrari driver climbed out of the car unaided after a 60G impact. He was released from the medical center without serious injury, but said he had briefly had blurry vision in his right eye.

Leclerc said the vision issue was his main concern immediately after the accident, though his neck was fine. He planned additional health checks before the Madrid Grand Prix on September 13 and said he expected to be okay to race there, but wanted to be cleared first. He also said he felt a difference in the car’s power delivery between laps one and two.

The cause of the crash came under scrutiny after Martin Brundle said a paddock source had told him Ferrari’s simulator had already shown the car could produce a small power spike in traction-limited situations. Brundle said that may have contributed to Leclerc running wide at Parabolica, onto the green-painted strip and a drain cover before spinning into the barriers. David Coulthard also criticized Leclerc’s error on F1TV and on his podcast, calling it the driver’s “Achilles’ heel” and describing the incident as a mental “glitch.”

An untelevised cooldown-lap radio exchange from the Italian Grand Prix laid bare Red Bull’s shortcomings at Monza, as Max Verstappen told team principal Laurent Mekies that the RB22’s weaknesses were obvious. Verstappen said the car struggled on the straights, had ride-quality problems, and was still difficult to use when defending positions even on better tires. He also said a rear-axle issue that surfaced in qualifying carried into the race and hurt the car over bumps, kerbs and low-speed sections. At one point, he said he was “fighting with two hands behind my back” against the Mercedes cars.

Verstappen finished third behind Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell after recovering from a lower starting position, briefly leading the race and using a Virtual Safety Car pit stop for fresher tires. He battled Russell, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Antonelli during the race, and said afterward that Red Bull had improved the car from Friday to Saturday. He still said the RB22 lacked straight-line energy deployment compared with Mercedes-powered cars, making it hard to defend position and forcing repeated overtaking attempts. The podium was Verstappen’s fifth of the season and his third in the last four races, but he remained frustrated by the lack of a win.

Mekies praised Verstappen’s drive on the radio and said Monza was a big step forward for Red Bull, with the team’s race pace the best news from a difficult weekend. He said the pace was strong enough to beat Ferrari and McLaren on merit, but Red Bull still needed more top speed to match Mercedes. Liam Lawson’s race brought less encouragement, as he started from the pit lane, suffered front-wing damage after contact with Nico Hülkenberg and finished 14th, out of realistic points contention.