If you ever needed proof that Formula 1 is less a sport and more a rolling morality play, look no further than the 2025 Italian Grand Prix. Monza, the cathedral of speed, has always been a place where legends are made and reputations are unmade—sometimes in the same afternoon. This year, the ghosts of past controversies stalked the pit lane, and the winners and losers were not always those who crossed the line first. Let’s take a walk through the paddock, shall we? Bring your sense of irony and a strong espresso.
- The Return of the King: Verstappen’s Monza Masterclass
- McLaren: The Perils of Fairness (and a Slow Left-Front)
- Ferrari: Home Is Where the Heartbreak Is
- The Standings: How They Finished at Monza
- Rookie Revelations: Hadjar and Bortoleto Shine
- The Midfield: Albon’s Ascendancy and Sainz’s Sorrow
- The Fallen: Alonso’s Anvil and Tsunoda’s Troubles
- Team Orders: The Old Ghosts Return
- Waste a Bit More Time
The Return of the King: Verstappen’s Monza Masterclass
Max Verstappen, who once declared his Red Bull team wouldn’t win another race this year after a Hungarian drubbing, arrived at Monza with the air of a man who’d misplaced his crown and just found it under the sofa. The Dutchman didn’t just win—he thumped McLaren, finishing over 19 seconds clear of Lando Norris. It was his third win of the season, but perhaps the most emphatic, coming at a circuit where Red Bull’s 2024 performance had been, in technical terms, “a disaster.”
Verstappen’s drive was a reminder that, for all the talk of McLaren’s new era, the old guard can still teach the young pretenders a lesson or two. He lost the lead to Norris at the start, only to reclaim it with a textbook pass at Turn 1, then simply disappeared into the distance. Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache, under pressure after a season of balance woes, joined Verstappen on the podium—a subtle nod to the fact that, in F1, redemption is always one race away.
Any hopes of muscling in on the title fight are long gone. But it’s days like this when Verstappen and Red Bull remind us how formidable they are at the peak of their powers.Jack Cozens, The Race
For those keeping score, this is only Verstappen’s second win at Monza, his first coming in 2023—a reminder that even the greats sometimes have to wait their turn at the Temple of Speed.
McLaren: The Perils of Fairness (and a Slow Left-Front)
If there’s a team that could turn a double podium into a public relations headache, it’s McLaren. The Woking squad, dominant for much of 2025, found themselves embroiled in a team orders controversy that will echo through the rest of the season. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, locked in a championship battle, were separated by a slow pit stop—a malfunctioning left-front wheel gun costing Norris precious seconds and dropping him behind his teammate.
McLaren, in a move that will be debated in pubs and paddocks for years, instructed Piastri to hand second place back to Norris. The rationale? The position swap was only due to the team’s error, not on-track merit. Piastri, understandably, was less than thrilled.
The slow pit stop wasn’t Norris’ fault, but asking drivers to compensate for a team’s mistake is never a good look, and it cheapened the ultimate result of the Italian Grand Prix.PlanetF1
The parallels to infamous team orders incidents—think Ferrari’s “Rubens, let Michael pass for the championship” in 2002, or McLaren’s own internecine warfare in 2007—are impossible to ignore. The difference? McLaren’s attempt at fairness may have been too clever by half, opening a can of worms about what constitutes a “just” result in a sport where luck and error are as much a part of racing as bravery and skill.
For those who enjoy a bit of historical context: McLaren’s last major team orders controversy was in 2007, when Lewis Hamilton was told not to challenge Fernando Alonso at Monaco. That ended in acrimony and an FIA investigation. Plus ça change.
Ferrari: Home Is Where the Heartbreak Is
Ah, Ferrari at Monza. The tifosi arrive every year with hope in their hearts and leave, more often than not, with a sense of existential dread. This year was no different. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, Lewis Hamilton sixth—respectable, but hardly the stuff of legend. Hamilton, still acclimatizing to life in red, described the car as “alien,” and the Scuderia found themselves in no-man’s land: too slow to challenge McLaren, too quick for the midfield.
It’s proving a season to forget for him and the Scuderia.The Race
Since 2000, Ferrari have won their home race just five times, the last being Fernando Alonso’s victory in 2010. The drought continues, and the faithful will have to wait another year for the miracle.
The Standings: How They Finished at Monza
| Position | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Winner |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +19.2s |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +21.0s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +27.3s |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | +29.1s |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +31.7s |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | +44.5s |
| 8 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | +47.2s |
| 9 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +49.0s |
| 10 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | +51.3s |
| … | … | … | … |
Rookie Revelations: Hadjar and Bortoleto Shine
Monza has a habit of making or breaking rookies. Think Vettel’s fairy-tale win for Toro Rosso in 2008, or Hamilton’s podium in 2007. This year, two names stood out: Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hadjar, starting from the pit lane, drove a measured race to finish tenth and score a point for Racing Bulls. In a season where his teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s future looks increasingly uncertain, Hadjar’s stock is rising fast.
We deserved that point because we had a really good pace yesterday. We did a really good comeback, and pace was strong.Isack Hadjar, post-race interview
Bortoleto, meanwhile, finished eighth for Sauber, outqualifying and outracing his more experienced teammate. In a year where Audi is watching closely ahead of their full entry, Bortoleto’s performances are making people sit up and take notice.
The Midfield: Albon’s Ascendancy and Sainz’s Sorrow
Alex Albon continues to be the best thing to happen to Williams since the invention of the blue stripe. Seventh place at Monza lifted him to seventh in the drivers’ championship, ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. Williams, often qualifying out of position, found race pace when it mattered, and Albon’s drive was described as “one of the best Sundays balance-wise I’ve had all year.”
Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, endured a weekend to forget. Penalized for rejoining the track unsafely, ordered to hand a position back to Albon, and then involved in a collision with Oliver Bearman, Sainz’s Italian Grand Prix was a case study in how quickly fortunes can turn.
The Fallen: Alonso’s Anvil and Tsunoda’s Troubles
Fernando Alonso, who somehow dragged his Aston Martin into Q3, saw his race end with a suspension failure over the Ascari kerb—a cruel twist for a driver who’s made a career out of defying the odds. As Alonso himself put it, “19 cars are OK over that offending kerb—I need the points.” Sometimes, the racing gods are just not interested in your narrative arc.
Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, finished a distant thirteenth, his afternoon unraveling after a clash with Liam Lawson and a lack of pace. With Hadjar scoring points from the pit lane, Tsunoda’s Red Bull future looks increasingly precarious.
Team Orders: The Old Ghosts Return
The McLaren team orders saga at Monza will be dissected for months, if not years. Was it fair? Was it necessary? Was it, as some have argued, a betrayal of racing’s core values? The history books are littered with similar controversies—Ferrari’s infamous Austria 2002, McLaren’s Monaco 2007, and countless others. The lesson, as ever, is that in Formula 1, the line between sporting integrity and pragmatic team management is as thin as a Pirelli sidewall.
For a deeper dive into the winners and losers, and a bit of video analysis, check out this YouTube breakdown: The Winners And Losers From The 2025 F1 Italian Grand Prix
Waste a Bit More Time
If you’ve made it this far, you’re either a true fan or just avoiding work. Either way, here are some links to help you procrastinate further:
