The 2019 Italian Grand Prix will be etched as a remarkable story for Tifosi and Ferrari. The team from Maranello was able to take their first victory at their home circuit after 2010, when a certain Fernando Alonso took the top step of the ladder. Taking the reins from him, the 22 year old Charles Leclerc took the victory, defending his position from the duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. However his remarkable victory at the 2019 Italian Grand Prix was not without a few controversies.
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In the long battle that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton endured, Leclerc went a little too defensive in one of the situations and pushed Hamilton off the track. As per the new rules set by FIA, he got a Black and White flag as a warning instead of a 5s time penalty, which was the usual case before. This certainly did not go down well with Lewis or with Toto Wolff who made no attempts in hiding his feelings about the same. Wolff accused FIA of being bias to Ferrari considering the race and the thousands of fans of the team that were present on the circuit for the same.
“What will you do: give Leclerc a 5s penalty here at Monza? You need a police escort when you leave the track.” he said post race.
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Toto Wolff on the stewards role in the Leclerc/Hamilton fight: "What will you do: give Leclerc a 5s penalty here at Monza? You need a police escort when you leave the track."#AMuS #F1 #ItalianGP
— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) September 8, 2019
He further added, “He [Leclerc] drove a hard but brilliant race and Ferrari had the strongest package. We threw two of our guys at him and it still wasn’t enough.
“I think his driving was a little bit over the edge. But do you want to give him a penalty in Monza? I think we would have had riots here.
“This is another problem we have. We want to see hard racing but how far does the leniency go. He could have had a penalty for that, pushing Lewis off.
“But I want to give them the credit they had the strongest car here.”
It was a tough call for the stewards but we believe that it was racing. Hard, but fair. The 2019 Italian Grand Prix will be a sign of changing tides at Ferrari. While at the beginning of the season they were pretty vocal about Leclerc being driver #2, it will be tough for them to approach him with such an approach. It is a difficult situation for the team – on one side is a four time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, who is horribly underperforming and on the other side, the young Charles Leclerc, who’s taken 2 back to back victories. It is difficult situation, but certainly a situation Ferrari won’t mind having.
