Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Technical Director Paddy Lowe, was ecstatic with the team’s one-two finish in the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza last weekend, in what he describes as one of the most satisfying places to win on the F1 calendar.
“Congratulations to Nico on his first win here at the Italian Grand Prix. It’s an incredible experience to win here, at one of the most iconic venues on the Formula 1 calendar, and the crowd always comes out in force.”
In terms of strategy, Lowe felt the two silver arrows drivers played it perfectly, managing the tyres brilliantly, and not giving up even when obstacles got in their way.
“It was a very controlled drive from Nico as it was difficult to manage the one-stop strategy and make the two tyre sets hold out for the necessary number of laps.
“For Lewis, the start was clearly a bad one as he went from 1st to 6th before the first corner and that made it extremely difficult for him to compete for the win. He completed a perfect recovery drive to get back to 2nd though and, with his fighting spirit, he didn’t give up on the win until it was clearly impossible.”
A poor start for driver Lewis Hamilton set him back at the beginning of the race, and this is something Lowe is keen to get to the bottom of and try to eradicate for future races.
“Clearly we need to analyse what happened to Lewis at the start and do better next time. After such a great qualifying lap yesterday we all share Lewis’ disappointment that he lost position.
The overall result was the best the German squad could have hoped for, and the 54-year-old expressed his pride at how well the whole team, in both Monza and back at the factory, had performed.
“It’s fantastic to get the 1-2 here today and it’s been a sensational performance all weekend from the drivers, race team and the team back at Brackley and Brixworth.”
