2024 F1 Italian GP: What did we learn?

The 2024 Italian GP ended with Charles Leclerc securing a fairytale win. The start of the race saw Oscar Piastri jump Lando Norris with an ambitious move, which also allowed Leclerc to pass through.

McLaren held a marginal edge over Ferrari at the Italian GP in terms of pace, but what truly impacted them was going to a two-stop strategy while Leclerc and Carlos Sainz stayed on one-stoppers.

With Leclerc keeping the tyres alive, he held off the McLaren duo to take the win. Piastri came home in second, while Norris rounded off the Italian GP podium in P3. Leclerc truly made the tifosi's day by winning with Ferrari, but what did we learn from the Italian GP race weekend? Let's take a look.

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2024 F1 Italian GP: Key Takeaways

#1 Charles Leclerc should be happy with how he won

Should we take some credit here? Well, we have been Team Ferrari and Team Leclerc all race weekend and backed the duo to do well. There was sound reason behind it, as we cited the car's ability to be kinder on its tyres.

However, once the adrenaline wears off, Leclerc will have a smile on his face not only, as he won the Italian GP but also because he won it not because of the car but because of strategy.

He has been a part of the team since 2019, but this might be the first time he can say that the team can compete with others on strategy. Leclerc has now won Monaco and Monza this season. By December, he could be satisfied that he ticked off these boxes.

#2 Lando Norris and McLaren were not ruthless enough

Lando Norris lost the lead at the start because he wasn't ruthless enough, as he admitted later that he didn't expect his teammate to try the move, which was a tad too aggressive. McLaren, meanwhile, in a bid to keep things equitable, pitted Piastri before Leclerc, which gave Ferrari an open goal in terms of strategy.

The question that needs to be asked here is why they pitted Oscar before Leclerc even though he wasn't losing any time to the Ferrari driver. The answer lies in the fact that if the team had waited any longer, Lando would have undercut Oscar.

In a bid to be equitable to both drivers, McLaren ended up costing themselves a win. The team is just not ruthless enough yet, and a win at the Italian GP went begging because of that.

#3 Situation is dire for Red Bull

The car is slow; the strategy is strange; the power unit has issues, and the pitstop was poor. If McLaren can get its act together, Red Bull should too.

Nothing is working in the team at the moment, and the unfortunate reality would be members like Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen shouting in the media, further destabilising things.

Red Bull are crumbling at an exponential rate, so it will be very interesting to see what they can do in the upcoming races.

#4 Mercedes are falling back once again

Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton should be disappointed with their outings, while Mercedes should be disappointed with their pace at the Italian GP. The team showed impressive form at the start of the weekend but fell off the pace.

It was just another race that showed that Mercedes needed another round of upgrades because they're still a step behind the frontrunners.

#5 Haas had a race from hell

Nico Hulkenberg's race ended after Daniel Ricciardo ran him off. The contact with Yuki Tsunoda exacerbated the situation.

Kevin Magnussen on the other side had a stunner of a race, as he scored a point, but he's getting banned for a race after the Italian GP. It could have been a much better race for the team, but things just didn't fall in place.