What to watch for in Monza

Racing for Anthoine

This week, the Formula 2 and Formula 3 paddocks will reunite in Monza, as one. With our hearts still in Spa, the teams and drivers will race in honour of the late Anthoine Hubert, who we tragically lost in the horrific events of last weekend.

The motorsport community gathered together last Sunday ahead of Race 2 at Spa and held a minute of silence in remembrance of Anthoine’s vibrant life. In Monza, we will race for him. The loveable Frenchman was a GP3 champion, a friend, and an inspiration to everyone within F3, and he is dearly missed.

Campioni

The dominant force within F3 this season, PREMA Racing sealed the Team’s Championship in Spa, with another outstanding haul of points. Their tally of 74 was their highest since Round 2 in Le Castellet and puts them on exactly 400 – a truly phenomenal figure.

Fittingly, it was sealed with a victory. Marcus Armstrong’s second win of the season in Race 2 confirmed it, aided by further points from Robert Shwartzman’s podium finish and Jehan Daruvala’s P4 placing.

With the Team’s Championship now confirmed, the Italian side can concentrate on assisting one of their trio to the title, with all three drivers in with a chance.

Charge to the title

The race to the title remains excruciatingly close with two rounds to go and any one of four drivers can realistically still lay claim to be in with a shout. The man currently on top is PREMA’s Shwartzman, who has a 33-point advantage over his rivals. The Russian may not have won since France, but four podium finishes have helped to top up his lead over teammate Daruvala.

Like his teammate, the Indian also hasn’t won since Le Castellet, but has notched four podiums as well. He briefly fell to third in the standings after Budapest, but collected enough points in Round 6 to return to second.

Outside of PREMA, Jüri Vips sits seven points and one place below Daruvala in third. The Estonian racer will have been frustrated not to have closed what was a 12-point gap between himself and Shwartzman ahead of Spa-Francorchamps, Instead, the Russian was able to extend his lead at the top and Vips fell to third. He will be looking for a reaction in Monza.

It is Armstrong in fourth who is arguably the most in-form of those at the top, with his two wins in the last two rounds leaving him 43 points behind his teammate in first. The Kiwi racer has been a consistent presence at the top all campaign and his first two wins in 2019 will have given him the confidence to push on in the final two weekends.

__Pushing on __

The Brazilian broke his duct in Spa-Francorchamps and achieved a first win of the year in Saturday’s Race 1, thanks to a terrific start. The Trident racer said in the aftermath of the race that he knew he had the pace to win, he just needed a good start. It didn’t quite happen off the line, but by the end of the first lap, he was leading.

In doing so, Piquet became the eighth winner in the Championship and further emphasised the competitiveness of this year’s field. A late title tilt may be out of reach, with a 78-point gap between himself and Shwartzman, but the 21-year-old will want to push on in Monza and end 2019 strongly.

Overtaking opportunities

Referred to as ‘La Pista Magica,’ or, ‘the magic track,’ by the country’s fanatical fans, Monza is an iconic circuit which has been a constant on the Formula 1 calendar - and for good reason. The high-speed, high-octane track is almost unrivalled for it’s straight-line speeds, with 11 corners and a number of real opportunities to overtake.

Those opportunities include the end of the first and the second straights, which go into low-speed chicanes. The first is aided by DRS, which adds to the openings that it presents to drivers.

The 610m run down to the first chicane makes a strong start vital in Monza, when the polesitter will have his work cut out to hold onto P1.