Ferrari begins by exciting the tifosi; Alonso and Sainz, away

It’s your Home Grand Prixand may or may not ultimately battle for the World Cup with Kimi Antonelli, the priority this weekend Ferrari is securing a win that can always save your season. And for now, they began by raising the audience present in monza with a double to start training Practice 1 of the Italian GP of F1 2026.

In front of their fans, some ‘tifosi’ who never lose faith, those of Maranello They put all the meat on the grill, with a new engine with more power, new fuel for more performance and a striking solution in the exhaust to go all out in the Racetrack. And although everyone still hides their potential, Ferrari It started in the best way, for now, exciting its fans with something big before seeing if they can continue raising the bar in Free Practice 2.

Charles Leclerc, ‘Il predestinato’, He led that red double with a 1’23″008, with a time almost 3 seconds slower than the best of Free Practice 1 of 2025 (1’20″117) due to the new engine regulations and the speed that these cars lose in the middle of the straight when exhausting electrical energy and recharging it later.

But there is still a lot of fabric to cut, and the two Ferraris did not put the soft ones. And they must still have more power stored in their engines, although the ill-thinking may believe that Ferrari wanted to start at full speed in front of its people.

For now, it was surprising to see that the best Mercedes, Russell (3rd, he did put the soft ones on), he would be 0″304 behind the Ferrari of Leclercin theory, the star being the best engine as a whole (combustion and electrical energy management).

Kimi will give Russell a slipstream

Russel It should be the star’s great asset this weekend because the World Championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, will start from behind in the race after being penalized for changing the power unit.

Kimi has already said that he will help George in qualifying by giving his teammate a slipstream, and that is another very important question that can change everything: how well the teams at the top do the slipstreams. And there, it doesn’t look like Hamilton and Charles are going to be able to waste their turns helping each other. Perhaps there George can have important help thanks to Kimi who does not rule out a spectacular Sunday comeback.

McLaren, the big doubt

Lawson was 4th with the Red Bull at 0″4, the first reference for those from Milton Keynes since Verstappen did not participate since Red Bull took advantage of these free periods to get into his car at Iwasa. And Kimi was 5th at 6 tenths.

And behind them, some very hidden McLarens that have just won two races in a row with Lando Norris. Norris was 6th to 7 tenths and the key for those in orange is to find the key with the electric management of the Mercedes engine, something that they did not do in Zandvoort in the sprint but they did for the Sunday race. Here they will not have that sprint test to see if they are on the right track, so free practice will be essential.

For now, McLaren is a mystery, since it focused its session on testing its new ‘Macarena’ style wing, like Ferrari’s. But for now they are far away.

Alonso and Sainz, away

Carlos Sainz finished 16th with a bad Williams that also has good resistance to progress and does not stand out in top speed, 1″8 head. AND Fernando Alonso finished 18th at 2″7.

The ‘positive’ point for Fernando Alonso is that the difference from his Aston Martin with those above on a track with such speed is no longer that of Spa and with the new car and the evolution of the engine they may have cut some time on the most complicated circuits for the AMR26 due to the lack of potential of the Japanese propellant.

But it is still far away, as expected. Alonso already predicted that Monza, Las Vegas and Baku They would be the worst circuits of the year for the green team. The lack of top speed was important. Alonso set a maximum speed at the detection point of 318 km/h, far from Paul Aron’s 341 km/h with the Alpine (he replaced Gasly in FP1), or Hamilton’s 336 km/h and Russell’s 334 km/h with the Mercedes.

This weekend, Alonso should not look at the results and focus all his efforts on fulfilling the work plan to resolve the engine’s drivability problems.

Sling He brought some adjustments to this circuit after his analysis in Sakura to apply them and make more adjustments during the weekend to begin to improve that driveability and get the engine to do what the drivers want, something necessary so that Alonso can attack with everything, without surprises, and to also maximize the aerodynamic package in the next rounds.