Everyone seems to rate the soggy race at Monza as one of the best of the year - it has even been described as better than the Belgian GP. I beg to differ. It was a good race with the result that everyone hoped for, but it was hardly the nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat stuff that we enjoyed at Spa.
Sebastian Vettel
Of course it was wonderful to see a small team and a young driver put one over the big boys - but, before we start talking of the new Schumacher (and who wants to return to those bad old days anyway?), let's get some perspective on Vettel's win. It was not entirely unexpected, given the STR3's recent performance, especially in the wet. Ever since Fuji last year, it has been clear that Toro Rosso are able to make an Adrian Newey chassis handle better in the wet than Red Bull seem capable of. I do not know what they do to make this happen but the evidence is there every time it rains.
What has been different of late is that STR have been catching their sister team in the dry too. Some of that may be down to the drivers, STR having a pairing that is new and eager to prove themselves, but much must be the result of the Ferrari engine gaining so much extra power while the Renault has stood still, by the manufacturer's own admission. So obvious has this become that there are calls for RBR to adopt the Ferrari engine for next year, the assumption being that Renault will continue to abide by the spirit of the engine freeze, in spite of the fact that it is clear that Ferrari have been happily circumventing it. I would not count on that one.
So STR's performance at such a wet Monza is more or less what we should have expected and Bourdais' fourth position on the grid merely confirmation that the car to have when the track is streaming is a Toro Rosso. I see that Alonso is now of the opinion that STR are the third best team; let him back that up by going to them next year then! The fact remains that, on a dry track, BMW and probably Renault and Toyota are still quicker than STR and, on a damp circuit, nothing will touch a McLaren.
What was remarkable was the cool head shown by Sebastian Vettel when presented with such a chance. He made the best use possible of his advantage, building a substantial lead in the early laps when he was the only one who could see where he was going, then maintaining a good pace to preserve that cushion through the rest of the race. Even Ayrton Senna threw away such chances on occasion.
But that does not mean that we have another Senna on our hands. If we look at Bourdais' performance after giving away a lap and a half to the rest of the field, it has to be said that he did as good a job as Vettel with the same equipment. The young German has proved he is as talented as so many of the recent arrivals in F1 - but it will be a while before we can set him alongside some of the great names of the past.
All this adds up to a pretty boring race at the front, especially as Kovalainen was unable to do anything about the STR ahead of him. Why that should have been so is more difficult to guess. On qualifying form, one would have expected the McLaren to be able to stay with the STR (ignoring visibility problems) but it soon became obvious that Heikki was not going to catch Vettel, even when the track began to dry out.
Hamilton's progress up the order showed that the McLaren could be made to perform well and I must presume that Kovy's explanation of brakes that would not warm up made all the difference. That puts Hamilton's race in an even better light, however, and it is fitting that he should have been the only exciting thing happening in the Italian GP.
For the rest of the race, there was very little to write home about. Oh, there was plenty of overtaking but most instances of this were of much quicker cars coming past slower ones. I was not exactly on the edge of my seat when Raikkonen managed to get by Fisichella, for instance. And, while giving credit to the BMW team for getting their boys up the order through efficient and judicious pit stops, it was hardly the stuff of which legends are made.
So I must disagree with the majority (yet again) and say that the Italian GP was good but nowhere near the glorious exhibition of F1 at its finest that was Spa a week ago. Even the sudden discovery by the media that STR used to be called Minardi does not impress me. There were things about Minardi that made it everyman's favorite underdog - some of that went when Paul Stoddard bought the team and the remnant died when Mateschitz changed its name to Toro Rosso.
If any team inherited the spirit of Minardi, it was the plucky little Super Aguri, and we have had no substitute since the plug was pulled on Honda's odd experiment with a second team. Many of the old Minardi personnel may remain at STR but the ethos has changed; my beloved Minardi team has gone forever and this GP was won by Red Bull money and a designer named Adrian Newey.