The base of the Mercedes engine
From the chaos of the Italian Grand Prix qualifying, a name emerges in the end that probably no one would have predicted beforehand: that of Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman secures an extraordinary pole position with Alpine, as surprising as it is deserved, certainly taking advantage of the opportunities left on the road by rivals, but above all putting together the only truly complete lap at the decisive moment of the session.
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The basis of Alpine’s performance is clearly the Mercedes engine. On the track most sensitive to power in the entire calendar, and in a Formula 1 where the Power Unit has once again taken on enormous importance in overall performance, the Brixworth power unit showed in qualifying all the value of the famous more aggressive map that it seems to have available. However, reducing Gasly’s pole position only to the engine would not be correct.
Alpine fast and balanced also in corners
The new package that debuted in the Netherlands has in fact made the French car much more balanced and Gasly was not only as fast on the straight as George Russell: in some points he even managed to do better than the Mercedes in corners. Perhaps the most impressive data comes from the Parabolica, where the Frenchman passes with about 8 km/h more than the Englishman, thus also managing to guarantee an excellent exit towards the finish line that secured him the pole position for the race.
Alpine then perfectly managed the moment of the pit exit. The two cars were the last to go out on track, avoiding being dragged into the chaos that was taking shape ahead and simultaneously finding the ideal gap from the Ferraris to exploit the slipstream, all while crossing the finish line of the last lap just a few seconds before the checkered flag. Gasly finally had everything he needed: car, engine, track position and, above all, a lap executed without errors.
Exactly what was missing instead for the others.
Russell had the pole position well within reach, and could have put Gasly between himself and the chasers, a great joker for the race. But the slipstream game with Antonelli, altered by Verstappen’s presence, compromised the lap preparation. The Englishman had the slipstream only on the first straight, arriving fast at the First Chicane, but making a mistake there on the braking, exactly as happened during the free practice. The slipstream of the very close car ahead, combined with a higher than normal speed, makes it very complicated to judge the correct braking point and in the end Russell left about one and a half tenths there compared to Gasly, practically the pole position.
Red Bull and Verstappen could also have entered the fight, but a rear-end problem took away their chance to express the real potential of the car, which could have been front row. McLaren in turn wasted a good opportunity: the Woking men had finally found a way to squeeze the Power Unit much more than seen during free practice, with a good level of energy available also between Ascari and Parabolica, but Piastri’s impeding cost the team third position, in addition to Norris’s poor lap that relegated him even to ninth position.
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Ferrari: terrible execution, like almost everyone. ADUO 2 works, the result is as expected
Ferrari will instead start from the second row, with Leclerc and Hamilton third and fourth behind Russell. A result that, considering how qualifying developed, is almost miraculous. Hamilton and Leclerc already in Q2 seriously risked not passing the cut, both for a first attempt with used tires decidedly very optimistic, and for a deployment problem in the second attempt that meant both Leclerc and Hamilton passed the cut by only a few thousandths. In Q3 then both Leclerc and Hamilton managed to pull out a very high-level lap: Charles especially in the first attempt, Lewis in the second, despite a great chaos also in Ferrari between missed slipstreams and an inexplicably solo first attempt by Hamilton on track. However, it is right to think on separate levels regarding the Maranello team.
The first concerns the original sin of the Ferrari 2026 Power Unit, which remains evident. In the year when the engine counts the most and on the track where power counts more than all, the SF26 starts from by far the least competitive base among the top teams. Without the second ADUO update, Leclerc and Hamilton would not have passed Q2, because that was simply the performance level of the Power Unit before the latest interventions.
The second level instead concerns the result obtained today. Being a few tenths from pole and even being able to think of fighting for something in the race at Monza is a result all in all in line with expectations, despite a terribly messy Q3. The merits are as always of a chassis that continues to prove very competitive, of the two drivers and above all of the progress brought by ADUO 2. This does not mean that Ferrari has suddenly caught up with Mercedes on the Power Unit front, nor that it has surpassed it. The Monza qualifying rather seems to show once again how important the extra power that the German engine can put out on a single lap is. But precisely for this, the expectation that Ferrari should monopolize the front row appears little consistent with the technical reality of this weekend.
The execution of Q3 was anything but perfect, but the reality is that it was practically not perfect for anyone. In the general chaos Ferrari ended up basically where the potential suggested, immediately behind Russell. The only one who put everything together without mistakes was Gasly, and that is exactly why he will start ahead of everyone.
The race: a puzzle
The race now promises an extremely open scenario, between energy management, slipstream effect and those possible “yo-yo” overtakes that this generation of cars can produce at Monza. Russell remains the absolute favorite, but Ferrari is still in the game, currently the Englishman’s main rival, Gasly aside. The Frenchman did not seem to have the pace in simulations to stay with the leaders, but it will remain a theme to confront for everyone, especially if on the straight he has so much speed as to not be attacked. If Red Bull manages to solve the rear-end problem (which seemed more a real technical problem and not a setup issue), then Verstappen could join the party in turn, while Antonelli from behind, with the new engine probably will climb at an impressive speed. An Italian Grand Prix therefore still all to discover.
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