Monza served up the usual mix of speed and side-eye, with a title fight bubbling at McLaren, a Mercedes warning shot, and Martin Brundle reading out texts from Christian Horner mid‑broadcast. Only at the Italian Grand Prix.
First, the message that lit up Sky F1’s coverage. Brundle revealed that Christian Horner texted him during the race to point out that Red Bull endured its “worst race” of last season at Monza — a pointed reminder on a day Max Verstappen snapped his eight‑race winless run at the Temple of Speed and banked win No. 3 of 2025. Twelve months ago Verstappen could manage only sixth here; this time he looked more like the metronome we remember. Horner, dismissed by Red Bull in July after more than two decades running the show, clearly hasn’t switched off his paddock radar.
Brundle’s grid walk supplied another talking point when he cut short a lively exchange with Eddie Irvine. The former Ferrari man bristled on live TV — “I don’t like my balls being broken,” he fired — and Brundle, chuckling, backed away with a line about Irvine being a “horrible person.” All in good Monza mischief, but it captured the delicious awkwardness the grid walk exists to deliver.
On track, the stewards’ room had its hands full after late contact between Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman at the second chicane. Bearman, driving for Haas, was judged at fault and slapped with a 10‑second penalty plus two penalty points — leaving him just two away from a race ban. Nico Rosberg didn’t buy the balance of blame. The 2016 World Champion argued that “Sainz needs to get a penalty,” calling out what he saw as repeat‑offender positioning. The officials disagreed on the day, but the optics are tricky for Bearman: a rising talent under a microscope, now walking a disciplinary tightrope with a third of the season still to go.
If the stewards were busy, McLaren’s pit wall was busier. A slow stop for Lando Norris flipped the orange cars and put Oscar Piastri ahead, triggering team orders in the final laps. Piastri was asked to hand second place back to Norris — his teammate and title rival — to restore what McLaren deemed the “correct” running order. That kind of call is never clean; it rarely is when there’s a championship on the line inside one garage. Zak Brown, though, saw only positives in public. The CEO praised “great teamwork and respect” between his drivers, framing the swap as damage limitation done properly.
There’s the rub: McLaren isn’t managing Sundays anymore; it’s managing a title campaign with two drivers in the fight. According to the current standings, Piastri holds a 31‑point lead over Norris with eight races left, and that gap informs everything. The team can’t afford to bleed points through bad luck — or rivalry — when the field behind is still capable of capitalizing. From Woking’s point of view, the swap was a blunt instrument used to avoid a bigger mess.
Not everyone sees it as tidy. Toto Wolff warned that McLaren may have set a “very difficult” precedent to undo. The Mercedes boss knows how these things snowball: one team order creates a hierarchy, however softly stated, and drivers don’t forget. The scenario is obvious. If Norris claws back into the fight and needs help later, does Piastri get the same courtesy? What if the form flips? McLaren says it’s playing the long game, but the long game can turn short in one safety car or one slow wheel nut.
All of this sits in the broader context of a season that refuses to settle. Verstappen’s Monza win re‑established Red Bull’s threat on circuits that didn’t flatter them last year, while Ferrari’s home weekend was heavy on emotion and light on payoff, and Mercedes hovered with intent rather than outright bite. McLaren, meanwhile, holds the cards at the sharp end — and the headache that comes with them.
Back to Horner’s text for a moment, because it’s telling. Red Bull’s former chief reminding everyone that Monza 2024 was a low ebb underscores how quickly fortunes swing in this era. Twelve months later, the same track became proof that upgrades, execution and a bit of calm can haul a team back into clear air. It’s also a reminder that the paddock’s loudest voices don’t always need a pit wall to be heard.
Monza was classic Monza: a podium of relief and frustration, politics baked into strategy calls, and a grid walk that doubled as primetime improv. The championship goes on, the stakes keep rising, and we’re left with the sense that the next argument will arrive long before the next chequered flag.
