While tyre struggles for Red Bull almost derailed the plan, Charles Leclerc stuck with his Monza one-stop as clean air presented itself, restoring belief in that ultimately crucial strategy.
It looked as though McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was well on his way to victory at Monza, only for Ferrari and Leclerc to break out a one-stop strategy which swung the race in their favour, Leclerc staying out of reach and driving on to victory, delighting the tifosi.
Clear air restored Charles Leclerc one-stop faith
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper
On a Sunday afternoon where tyre graining proved a huge topic at Monza, Leclerc had begun doubting his pre-race one-stop plan, considering Red Bull on the alternate strategy were struggling even with the hard tyres.
But, once free of Piastri ahead as he peeled into the pits, Leclerc was able to regain that grip and the one-stop was on the table again. He and Ferrari would execute it to devastating effect, that Leclerc’s second win of F1 2024 and Ferrari’s third, as Piastri and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the podium.
“Before the race, if you would have asked me, the one-stop was definitely the thing I wanted to do,” Leclerc told media including PlanetF1.com.
“After 10 laps, I think we saw that Red Bull started to struggle with the front left on the hard. And there we started to doubt the one-stop. We thought that it would be a lot more difficult because we thought that the hard would be a more difficult tyre to bring to the end.
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